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: "In the Hands of the Prophets"**SPOILERS**
============================================================

Episode
Number: 420
Air Date: 6/19/93

There are SPOILERS below! You have been warned.
Ye who enter here, all hope abandon of remaining unspoiled.


	As the show opens, the O'Briens are doing a little
shopping. Chief O'Brien stops to buy a Bajoran sweet, 
something he calls a "Jumjah stick"; he tries to get Keiko 
to try it but she's not interested. He tells Keiko he was 
introduced to the treat by his Bajoran assistant, Neela, 
and goes on to praise the woman's engineering skills, 
causing Keiko to exhibit a jealous streak. Later, in the 
classroom, Keiko is teaching her students about the 
wormhole and what's been learned about it since it was 
discovered. As she talks, the door opens and an older 
Bajoran woman steps in, dressed in stately robes. When 
Keiko makes reference to the wormhole aliens, the woman 
interrupts her, saying, "Don't you mean the Prophets?" She 
and Keiko engage in an uncomfortable conversation, as Keiko 
expresses her respect for Bajoran beliefs but her 
unwillingness to try and include them in her curriculum. 
The Bajoran woman then states that what Keiko is teaching 
is blasphemy, and she will not allow it to continue. 
	Elsewhere on the station, O'Brien checks in with his
Bajoran assistant, Neela, who has just completed a repair 
in exemplary fashion. O'Brien opens his tool kit to get out 
a special tool used to close the security seal on the panel 
Neela was working on, but finds it missing, to his 
distress.
	In Sisko's office, Keiko has brought the matter of the
Bajoran woman's interference in her classes to Sisko's 
attention. Sisko is unsurprised, saying that such a 
confrontation was inevitable. He calls Kira in to get her 
opinion on the matter, and Kira tells him that the woman, 
Vedek Winn, has been speaking with Bajoran civilians on the 
station, trying to enlist their support. Winn is from an 
orthodox order, and has a certain amount of support to become the next Kai, though probably not enough to be 
successful. To Keiko's astonishment, Kira also expresses 
support for Vedek Winn's views, saying that she thinks some 
revision of the curriculum to include more Bajoran 
philosophy might be appropriate. Keiko is offended by the 
idea that someone else might be able to dictate what she 
can and can't teach; Kira suggests perhaps separate 
schools, one for the Bajorans and one for the Federation, 
might be a solution. But Sisko objects to that, saying that 
he doesn't want to separate Federation and Bajoran 
interests. Kira's reply is that in many ways Federation and 
Bajoran interests *are* separate. Keiko says she won't 
teach philosophy; Kira replies that pure science without 
any spiritual content might be considered a philosophy of 
its own. Sisko says that there is room for all philosophies 
on the station, and asks for suggestions on resolving the 
problem. Kira is not sure any solution exists.
	Sisko goes to speak with Vedek Winn himself, finding her in
the Bajoran temple on the station. Winn says she's 
honoured to meet with the Emissary to the Prophets, an 
attitude Sisko finds disconcerting. Winn grips his ear to 
read his *Pagh*, and tells Sisko he's still a disbeliever; 
she goes on to tell him how much she misses Kai Opaka. 
Sisko tries to bring the topic of the conversation back to 
the school, and Winn says that she has received a message 
from the Prophets saying that Keiko's teachings have 
dishonoured the Celestial Temple, and the teacher must 
recant. If Keiko will not do so, Vedek Winn says she can't 
be held responsible for the consequences.
	In Ops, O'Brien is still searching for his missing tool.
The vanished implement is important; with it, a person can 
access all of the station's vital systems. Dax asks O'Brien 
if he's seen Ensign Aquino, who failed to report for his 
duty shift, but O'Brien hasn't. The Ops Chief goes to scan 
the station for Tritanium residues which would help him 
locate the missing device, and finds one in a power 
conduit. He shuts the conduit down, and he and Neela head 
off to go and look at the location themselves. When they 
arrive, they find a messy melted puddle of something on the 
floor of the power conduit. A scan confirms that it has 
Tritanium in it and is almost certainly the remains of the 
missing tool. There are also organic molecules present, 
however, and O'Brien collects a sample to give to Dr. 
Bashir for analysis. 
	Later, in a turbolift, O'Brien explains to Keiko that
Aquino made a log entry saying he was going to check on an 
irregularity in that power conduit, so that if he came to 
some mishap in there, it was probably an accident that 
happened while he was trying to fix the problem. They go 
over to the Bajoran sweet vendor for another Jumjah stick, 
but the merchant refuses to sell to them, saying he's "all 
out", in spite of the fact that there are some sitting on 
the counter right in front of him. O'Brien loses his temper 
and grabs the man's shirt, attracting Odo's attention. The 
merchant says he doesn't have to sell anything to the 
O'Briens if he doesn't want to, and Keiko hustles a 
fighting-mad O'Brien away from the shop before he tries to 
punch out the merchant. As they leave, the vendor shouts 
after them, "Seek the Prophets!" A disgusted Odo walks 
away, muttering "Seek them yourself."
	O'Brien tells Keiko he could ask for a transfer, but Keiko
is unwilling to run away from the situation. As they 
approach the school, they find Vedek Winn outside, making a 
speech to a crowd of Bajorans, including Keiko's young 
pupils. Winn asks Keiko if there's a place in her school 
for the Prophets, and Keiko replies with a flat "No." Winn 
suggests a compromise: instead of teaching the Bajoran 
philosophy of the wormhole, Keiko could simply say nothing 
about the wormhole at all. Keiko asks what other topics she 
will be forbidden to teach, and Winn side-steps the 
question. Keiko angrily retorts that as a teacher it is her 
responsibility to give knowledge to her students, not hide 
it from them, and rejects Winn's proposed compromise. "I 
tried to be reasonable," says the religious leader, and 
walks off. The Bajorans all follow her, leaving only the 
Federation children behind at the school. In Ops, the staff 
confers about the accident that appears to have befallen 
Ensign Aquino. O'Brien says it is plausible that the 
incident is only what it appears to be, but he is unsure; 
it would be unheard of for a Starfleet engineer to help 
himself to his Chief's tools without asking. Odo suggests 
that it might not be an accident then, and Sisko asks the 
security chief to investigate the matter. 
	Jake walks into Ops and asks to talk to his father. He
tells Sisko that Keiko held class as usual, though there 
were only five students there. Jake is outraged that the 
Bajorans' religious beliefs are causing such a problem; he 
calls the whole thing "stupid". Sisko chides his son gently 
for his comments, pointing out that there is no difference 
between Jake's attitude toward the Bajoran beliefs and 
Vedek Winn's attitudes toward the Federation ones. "We 
can't afford to think that way, Jake. We'd lose everything 
we've worked for here." Jake asks Sisko what he intends to 
do, and Sisko says he doesn't know -- but he's got to find 
some help.
	Sisko heads down to Bajor to search for the support he
needs. In a lush, beautiful garden, he meets with Vedek 
Bareil, another Bajoran spiritual leader. Sisko attempts to 
offer his ear to the Vedek, but the amused Bareil tells 
Sisko that he always hated that archaic ritual and would 
prefer to see it abolished. Sisko agrees. Sisko asks for 
Bareil's help against Vedek Winn; Bareil and Winn hold very 
different orthodoxy's, and Bareil is the favoured candidate 
to become the new Kai. Sisko wants Bareil to arrange a 
meeting between himself and the Vedek Assembly to discuss 
the school issue, but Bareil gently turns him down, with 
the implication that the timing would be bad for his 
chances to become Kai. He promises to be a better friend to 
Sisko in the future, if he should become Kai, and walks 
off, leaving an unhappy Sisko behind. 
	Back on the station, Sisko enters Ops to discover that 
many of their Bajoran personnel are not at their posts. 
Kira tells him that the missing crew said they "weren't 
feeling well" and didn't report for duty. Sisko is angered, 
and tells Kira he can't believe the Bajorans would throw 
away the progress that's been made between the Federation 
and the Bajorans over something like this. Kira replies 
that they wouldn't do that, out of fear of the Cardassians, 
but Sisko sharply tells her that protecting Bajor's borders 
is not the Federation's primary purpose in involving itself 
in Bajoran affairs -- it is to build a working relationship 
between Bajor and the Federation. He suggests to Kira that 
the Bajorans could be trying a little harder, and Kira 
replies that she's giving him all the support she can, but 
he cuts her off with a curt, "It's not enough!" Sisko 
grimly tells Kira that the missing Bajorans had better get 
well in a hurry or they'll have to recover on their way to 
their new assignments. 
	Odo and Bashir walk into Ops, and Bashir tells Sisko that
he has identified the remains as definitely belonging to 
Ensign Aquino -- and furthermore, he has learned that the 
ensign was *not* killed by the plasma flow in the power 
conduit, but by a high intensity energy discharge. Which is 
to say, a phaser set on kill. His death was not an 
accident; it was a murder. Sisko suggests that perhaps the 
death was related to the school issue, but Bashir says the 
murder took place before Vedek Winn arrived on board. No 
one is able to come up with an motive for the ensign's 
death. Odo's check of the turbolift logs showed that the 
duty log entry which Aquino supposedly made saying he was 
going to check on the power conduit had been falsified; 
according to the turbolift logs, the ensign had gone to 
Runabout Pad C instead. O'Brien and Neela check out the 
Runabout on Pad C, but come up empty. Neela asks if O'Brien 
knew the dead ensign, and O'Brien says no. Neela didn't 
either; she comments that the Federation and Bajoran 
personnel don't mix much. O'Brien asks her why that is, and 
she says she doesn't know, but she goes on to comment that 
O'Brien is "not like the others" -- he doesn't "put on any 
airs". 
	Odo goes to speak with Quark just as a group of orthodox
Bajorans arrive on the station to show support for Vedek 
Winn. Odo asks Quark what he knows about the murder of 
Ensign Aquino, but Quark hasn't heard a thing. O'Brien 
calls to Odo from the second level of the Promenade, and 
then shows the security chief a security bypass module 
O'Brien found, but at Runabout Pad A, not Pad C. O'Brien 
finds this baffling, but Odo comes up with a theory: that 
the murdered ensign had gone to check on a security anomaly 
at Runabout Pad C, interrupted someone who was tampering 
with the Runabout, and been killed by the person he 
interrupted. After disposing of the body, the murderer then 
moved to Runabout Pad A to complete his purpose there -- 
whatever that purpose might have been. Odo thinks someone 
might have wanted to steal a Runabout, except that none of 
them are missing.
	The discussion is terminated by the sound of a large
explosion from elsewhere on the Promenade. Both officers 
dash toward the site of the disturbance, and discover the 
schoolroom has become a raging inferno. O'Brien tries to 
run into the flames, calling for his wife, but Odo holds 
him back. Keiko pushes her way through the crowd to 
O'Brien's side; she was not in the schoolroom when the 
explosion occurred. Crewmembers hurry to extinguish the 
blaze. 
	The crew examine the wrecked remains of the schoolroom
after the fire has been put out, and discover traces of 
two common explosives in the ruins. Apparently the blast 
was the result of a home-made bomb. Vedek Winn appears in 
the crowd outside, asking if anyone was hurt, and Sisko 
rounds on her angrily, accusing her of instigating the 
attack with her talk. He tells her she has claimed the 
Prophets as her personal constituency, and she retorts that 
he is as misguided as Vedek Bareil. She then goes on to say 
that no, he is not merely misguided -- he is actively evil, 
engaged in an attempt to destroy the Bajoran people. Sisko 
replies with an impassioned statement, saying that the 
Bajorans who have worked with the Federation aboard the 
station know better than that. He states his belief that 
although the two groups may get into some fights, they 
always come out of them with a better understanding of each 
other than when they began. Sisko tells Winn that she won't 
succeed here; the school will stay open, and when her 
rhetoric grows old, the Bajorans will start bringing their 
children back to learn. Winn simply replies, "We'll see." 
After the Federation people have moved away, Neela stands 
in place for a long moment, staring after Vedek Winn.
	Later in Ops, Sisko asks O'Brien how Keiko is doing, and is
told that she is shaken but intends to hold school as 
usual in an empty cargo bay. Sisko requests an update on 
the investigation into Ensign Aquino's death, and O'Brien 
tells him about the security bypass he found. O'Brien 
states that he has had security seals placed around the 
Runabouts to prevent tampering, as in the background Neela 
listens intently. 
	Just then, a transmission arrives from Vedek Bareil, on
board a Bajoran transport. Bareil says that he has decided 
to accept Sisko's offer to visit the station; Sisko is 
confused for a moment, then plays along, commenting, 
"Unfortunately, we have some damage we won't be able to 
clean up before you get here." Vedek Bareil replies, "I 
heard about it. Perhaps I can help you clean it up." 
	In the Bajoran Temple on the station, Vedek Winn receives a
visit from Neela. Neela tells Winn that her intentions for 
the Runabout have been discovered, leaving her with no way 
to escape; and if she is captured, she will be executed. 
Winn tells her that the Prophets sometimes demand great 
sacrifices. 
	In Ops, O'Brien notices an unexplained file in the Security
section of the computer, labelled "ANA". It's protected by 
his own security code, but O'Brien has no idea what it is. 
He starts working on a manual override of the protections 
while Dax prepares to decrypt the encoding on the file. 
Meanwhile, Vedek Bareil's ship arrives, and the leader is 
greeted by a throng of joyful Bajorans. Neela watches from 
the second level of the Promenade, a grim expression on her 
face.
	In Ops, O'Brien and Dax succeed in opening the locked file,
and discover that it's a program designed to deactivate 
selected station security fields. A diagram of the chosen 
fields shows that the program was intended to provide an 
escape route for someone, leading to Runabout Pad A. 
O'Brien scans for anomalous readings in the security 
relays, and finds that a subspace relay was activated in 
the security office nine minutes ago. Being unable to 
determine what the device is doing from Ops, O'Brien heads 
down to take a look at it in person. 
	On the Promenade, Bareil approaches Winn and greets her. He
refuses to let her grasp his ear, joining hands with her 
instead. He suggests that the two of them go to the 
schoolroom to seek a peaceful solution to the problem, and 
the pair of leaders walk off, followed by the crowd of 
Bajorans. Down in Security, O'Brien discovers that the 
subspace relay unit has been integrated into the systems 
that he and Neela were working on repairing two days ago. 
Neela, then, must have been the one responsible.
	The Bajorans arrive at the schoolroom, the crowd pushing
and jostling for position. Neela stands among them, 
silent. Vedek Bareil starts to speak of his shame that his 
people have resorted to violence to make their point.
	O'Brien asks Dax to check on the weapon sensors in the
Promenade, that being the most likely system that the 
subspace relay could be affecting. Dax says everything 
seems to be functioning normally, but O'Brien isn't 
convinced. He calls Sisko on his commbadge and tells the 
commander his suspicions about the weapon sensors, and 
about Neela. 
	Meanwhile, Vedek Bareil continues to counsel his people to
reject violent solutions, and embrace trust instead. The 
crowd cheers his speech enthusiastically as Neela moves 
into position. Sisko sees Neela as she draws a weapon from 
her tool kit; he shouts and lunges for her, but not before 
Neela brings the weapon to bear on Vedek Bareil. Bareil 
sees her and stands, unflinching, as Neela fires -- and 
misses. Sisko brings her down with a flying tackle before 
she can get off a second shot. As she is hauled away by 
Security, she shouts, "The Prophets spoke! I answered their 
call!"
	Kira walks over to Vedek Winn. "It was all to get him here,
wasn't it?" she says. "The school, the protest, the 
bombing -- you knew that would get him out of the 
monastery. You did it all to kill him; to stop him from 
becoming Kai." Winn walks away without a word.
	Later, in Ops, Kira sits at her station, staring at
nothing. Sisko enters and tells her that Neela has claimed 
that she acted alone, and Kira says that they'll never be 
able to prove Vedek Winn's involvement. Sisko asks Kira if 
she's okay, and she replies, "I've forgotten what 'okay' is 
like. I haven't been okay in years." She goes on to say 
that a year ago, when she was fighting Cardassians in some 
unnamed swamp, she would never have believed where she 
would be in a year -- the Cardassians gone, and herself in 
uniform, guarding a wormhole in space. "Protecting your 
Celestial Temple," says Sisko. Kira tells him she envied 
Winn's conviction, and wished she were as strong in her 
faith as the Vedek extremist. She then says, "You were 
right in what you said about the Bajorans. Or at least 
about me. I don't think you're the devil."
	"Maybe we really have made some progress after all," says
Sisko, and the Bajoran Major and the Federation Commander 
walk off together. 

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 Review:
"In the Hands of the Prophets"
-----------------------------------------------------------

One-sentence
opinion summary: Had some nice stuff in it, and one of few 
decent mystery subplots I've ever seen on Trek, but 
otherwise fairly standard. Which ain't a good thing for a 
season finale. 

There are SPOILERS below! You have been warned.
Ye who enter here, all hope abandon of remaining unspoiled.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has
endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended 
us to forego their use." -- Galileo Galilei

While I think it's fitting that the season closer for Deep
Space Nine should focus on the question of 
Bajor/Federation relations, and I admit that the theme of 
religious fanaticism inciting violence is very timely 
considering what's been in the news recently, I have to say 
that I found "In the Hands of the Prophets" a bit of a 
letdown. Not a serious one; I do think it was a fairly good 
episode, with some good things to say. But as a finale, 
especially coming after the tour-de-force of "Duet", it 
lacked something.

The biggest difficulty may have been a problem of focus.
The episode seemed to be unable to make up its mind 
whether it wanted to be a philosophical episode about 
science versus religion (which I'll have some biting things 
to say about later on) or an action episode about terrorism 
with bombs and assassination attempts. While a mixture can 
work (although it takes some delicate handling), for the 
last show of the season you really want something to stick 
in the viewers' minds and carry them over the summer 
doldrums, and for that I'd say you need either slam-bang 
action without pause, a la "Best of Both Worlds" pt. I, or 
some really meaty, gripping moral character drama, a la 
"Duet". Trying to do both at once practically guarantees 
that neither aspect will be totally successful, and that's 
what I think happened here. 

The question of Bajoran/Federation relations is an
important one to the show; in many ways it's the 
underlying theme of DS9 as a series, in much the same way 
that exploration is the theme of TOS and TNG. TOS and TNG 
look outward to find new frontiers; DS9 in a certain sense 
looks inward (Gamma Quadrant notwithstanding; they're 
hardly using it, anyway ;-) But before they can adequately 
explore this relationship, they really need to *define* it 
better, and that holds true for the characters as much as 
the writers. For example, consider the conversation between 
Sisko and Kira where she says the only reason the Feds are 
on Bajor is to protect them and the wormhole from the 
Cardassians, and he replies that the Feds' reason for being 
here is to establish a good working relationship between 
the Federation and Bajor. That really got me wondering what 
exactly it is the Federation *is* trying to do on Bajor. 
Has Bajor applied for Federation membership? I don't recall 
this ever being said. Did Bajor ask for the Federation's 
help in rebuilding with the implicit promise that if it 
went well they'd ask for Federation membership? Or did the 
Federation just decided to step in and help, as the US did 
in Somalia? Is the Federation help being given genuinely 
free of attached strings, or is there an implicit attitude 
of "Once the Bajorans see the advantages of being a part of 
the Federation, surely they'll apply for full membership"? 
And have the Federation's attitudes and priorities changed 
now that the wormhole has been discovered? 

The reason I pose these questions is that the answers to
them would determine to a great deal how I feel about "In 
the Hands of the Prophets". If the Bajorans have requested 
Federation membership, or requested Federation help with 
the idea that they will decide from the Federation's 
handling of things whether or not to apply for Federation 
membership, then the Federation is justified to a certain 
extent in attempting to influence Bajor's polices so that 
they will become eligible for inclusion. If, on the other 
hand, the Federation offered its help without any sort of 
understanding that it was a first step toward preparing 
Bajor for full Federation membership, then the Federation 
should be scrupulous in keeping its nose the hell out of 
Bajoran matters and should give way to Bajoran concerns 
whenever Bajoran and Federation interests conflict. 
Otherwise it's just a veiled version of "Federation Man's 
Burden", and I don't accept it. 

So let's give the Federation the benefit of the doubt and
say that the Bajorans have expressed an interest in 
eventual Federation membership if things work out. In that 
case, the Federation and its representatives have some 
cause to attempt to influence those aspects of Bajoran 
culture that would disqualify it for that membership, 
although the reasons behind such actions should be made 
clear to the Bajorans (and incidentally, to the viewers.) 
If, for example, the Federation has a policy of allowing 
free access to information for all its citizens (which I 
think would be admirable), then it would definitely be 
against Federation practice to allow censorship in their 
schools. On the other hand, if there is no such policy, I 
think that Sisko would *have* to support Vedek Winn against 
Keiko, given that most of the class is Bajoran and the 
Bajorans have a right to say what their children should be 
taught. How I (or Keiko, or Sisko) feel about it personally 
is unfortunately irrelevant in such a situation. This 
assumes, of course, that Bajorans in general agree with 
Vedek Winn, which appeared to be the case. 

I was very relieved to hear Sisko explaining to Jake that
his attitude was a wrong as Vedek Winn's, as up to that 
point I was getting rather steamed at the patronising tone 
of the whole episode. To my mind, the central question 
wasn't whether Keiko's curriculum should be censored -- I 
am against censorship in all forms; even Rush Limbaugh has 
a right to say what he darned well pleases -- it was 
whether Keiko's attitude toward the Bajoran culture was at 
all appropriate. And the answer I came back with was "Heck 
no!" In fact, I came out of this episode disliking Keiko 
O'Brien almost as much as I disliked Vedek Winn! I don't 
understand why the children, Bajoran and Federation alike, 
weren't being taught about the Bajoran system of belief and 
how it influences their society. That's at least as valid a 
topic of discussion as physics and biology. It wasn't 
required, or at all appropriate, for Keiko to tell the kids 
which version was right; all that was required was for her 
to present both of them in a non-judgmental light and let 
the kids decide for themselves what they chose to believe. 
I'd have been much, *much* more sympathetic to Keiko if she 
had responded to Vedek Winn with a statement about "But the 
children do study Bajor and Bajoran beliefs! I believe 
cultural studies are a very important part of the learning 
process!" and Vedek Winn was demanding that *only* Bajoran 
beliefs be taught. School is not just about learning facts, 
or at least, it shouldn't be. I feel that it should be the 
priority of schools to teach students how to use their 
minds to the fullest, how to reason and use logic, how to 
be empathic with other people, how to view more than one 
perspective, and how to solve practical problems. While 
giving students access to as much knowledge as they wish to 
absorb is important, teaching them what they can do with 
that knowledge is more so. What's really strange is that in 
the episode where the school first opened, "A Man Alone", 
the very first thing Keiko did was to tell her students to 
start learning more about Bajor. I would have thought she'd 
have had a more sympathetic attitude toward the society the 
majority of her pupils are from. 

I guess that's what I'm getting at here: That while nothing
justifies the kind of violence Vedek Winn employed, it 
seems to me that the Federation people (especially Keiko) 
brought a lot of the problem on themselves. It's never a 
good idea to give fanatics fuel for their fires if a little 
judicious thought and effort can defuse matters before they 
get out of hand, and I think that could have been done 
here. At least making some gesture of compromise to Vedek 
Winn would have deprived her of a lot of her ammunition and 
made her look more like the villain she was; by being 
arrogant and inflexible, Keiko practically handed the whole 
argument over to Vedek Winn's control and made it clear to 
the Bajoran parents that the Federation was determined to 
be *right*, without regard for their feelings. This was 
echoed in Neela's statements to O'Brien about how he 
"wasn't like the others"; I would guess that her comment 
had a lot of truth to it (even if she was trying to defuse 
O'Brien's suspicions with some timely flattery.) If I were 
in charge of the Federation, I'd have made sure that all 
personnel who were sent to DS9 were carefully screened to 
make sure they were capable of working well with the 
Bajorans, a people who are *bound* to be hypersensitive 
about themselves and their culture, having just emerged 
from six decades of occupation by an alien force determined 
to wipe it out. (Of course, then Bashir would never have 
made it aboard, no doubt...) 

While I can see Sisko's point about how the Bajorans could
be trying a little harder to make things work out 
(especially given the attempted interference in "Duet"), I 
find it very understandable that the Bajorans would be 
touchy, defensive, and downright terrified about getting 
into bed with the Federation after what they just emerged 
from. We the viewers may have deep faith in the 
Federation's good intentions, but the Bajorans have no 
reason to share it. Trauma survivors take careful handling, 
and Keiko's behaviour doesn't qualify, I'm afraid. 

Also, I very much appreciated Sisko's final comment to Kira
about how protecting the wormhole was *also* protecting 
the Celestial Temple of the Prophets, because until then I 
was getting the impression that the writer was trying to 
state categorically that science and religion are mutually 
incompatible belief systems. I happen to strongly disagree 
with that statement (and I'm donning asbestos long johns 
here in preparation for being flamed.) Just so you know 
what perspective I'm speaking from, I'm a scientist by 
training, in the fourth year of my PhD studies (though I'm 
taking a break), and I was raised Catholic but have since 
lapsed. While I would tend to agree that science and 
*organised religion* make very uncomfortable bedfellows, I 
see no inherent contradiction in being a scientist with 
faith. I so consider myself. (And no, I won't debate anyone 
on the topic. Save your email.) My faith is fairly freeform 
and subscribes to few rules, but it's real. The problem 
with a lot, but not all, organised religions is that they 
discourage active questioning on the part of their members, 
and *THAT* is in fact mutually incompatible with science, 
which is all about questions -- And if you're very lucky, 
occasionally a few answers :-) And that is where a lot of 
the conflict between the two comes in, and where I side 
with science. (And why I'm a lousy Catholic; I ask too many 
questions ;-)

Or to put it bluntly: I'm with Sisko. The wormhole may be
an artefact constructed by aliens out of viridions (or 
whatever); but it is also the Celestial Temple of the 
Prophets. And there's no contradiction there at all. 

Well, having rambled at length about the themes of the
show, I figure it's time to get down to some plot and 
character specifics. Bet you thought I'd never get around 
to it. (The end of the season has been bad for me; in 
addition to making me lazy, it's made me even more verbose 
than usual...)

In the "loose threads" department, they finally got around
to mentioning how Sisko's status as the Emissary has 
affected the Bajorans view of him; it was good to hear that 
mentioned. They also finally got around to acknowledging 
that the Bajorans noticed that they lost their Kai (it's 
about time...), although I thought Vedek Winn missed a sure 
bet in not bringing that up as more evidence of how the 
Federation was trying to destroy Bajor's religion and Bajor 
itself. "This is the man who took the Kai through the 
Celestial Temple and left her on a planet of homicidal 
maniacs! Can you not see how he works to destroy us??!" I'd 
have thought it would be a natural topic for inflammatory 
rhetoric.

One thing that was well done in this episode was the
mystery aspect of it -- what happened to the unfortunate 
Ensign Aquino, and why? The reason it worked was not 
because we wanted to know who did it; Neela was the obvious 
choice and there weren't any other red herrings to distract 
attention from her. It worked because up until the end we 
had no idea *why* it happened. Perhaps Trek should stick to 
this sort of mystery, since I don't think it does whodunits 
well at all. The pacing of the episode was also tight; I 
didn't get bored watching it. The slow motion camera bit at 
the end was cheesy and corny, though (hmm, sounds like a 
snack food...) and I wish they'd left it out. I also 
wondered why Sisko tried to go for Neela instead of Vedek 
Bareil; perhaps he wasn't sure who the target was, except 
that Bareil was the obvious choice. And I'm not clear 
exactly why Neela missed; Bareil didn't duck. Was she just 
a lousy shot? Or did she have last minute qualms? It would 
have been nice if they had said. Also, in spite of what 
Kira said at the end, I think it should be fairly easy to 
prove that Neela was involved in some sort of conspiracy, 
although perhaps not that Winn was involved; after all, 
when she took the first steps of fixing a Runabout and 
murdering Aquino, she had absolutely no way of knowing that 
her target would be on DS9 in the near future -- unless she 
was working with someone else capable of getting him there. 
(Which means she was either working with Winn or 
Sisko...hey, maybe that explains why Sisko didn't try to 
tackle Bareil -- clearly he masterminded the whole thing to 
get back at Bareil for not getting him in to see the Vedek 
Assembly! ;-)

I also rather liked the final scene; although quiet, it was
a fairly good summation of the character development 
that's been going on between Sisko and Kira throughout the 
season. I enjoyed it, though after "Duet" it worries me a 
little that DS9 appears to be drifting toward TOS in terms 
of being strongly focused on only a few of the main 
characters; I still want to see more ensemble shows. I'm 
also getting more than a little tired of the plotline of 
"Federation and Bajoran interests collide/Kira sides with 
the Bajorans/Kira and the Bajorans are proven to be in the 
wrong." It's not quite that blatant, but I would like to 
see an episode where Bajoran and Federation interests 
collide and the Federation loses out to the Bajorans, and 
Kira comes out the clear winner for a change. 

Now, moving on to characters: As I've already said above,
I've decided I don't much like Keiko O'Brien. I also think 
that, based on what we've seen of her in the classroom, 
she's a *lousy* teacher, no matter what everyone else keeps 
saying. Her presentation style stinks and her classroom 
set-up is outdated even by today's standards. (Granted, I 
feel strongly about the subject of teaching.) And I found 
the bickering between the O'Briens at the beginning forced 
and unconvincing, although I liked the part where Keiko has 
to keep Miles from taking a swing at the Bajoran merchant 
who won't sell to them. Jake got a very nice scene with 
Sisko, and his attitude was very believable for a 
Federation kid -- and also an indication of the problem 
with the Federation attitude toward Bajor. (Yes, I'm 
beating a dead horse.) Odo plays detective again, and again 
enlists Bashir's help; combined with last week, this looks 
like a recurring motif. (I have this weird image of the two 
of them in a buddy-type detective how -- "Premiering this 
fall on ABC, it's 'Shifter and the Doc!'" I gotta cut out 
that caffeine...) Very little Quark again, though I liked 
the line about him being happy to sell his friends to Odo. 
As for Kira, I sided with her this time in standing up for 
Bajoran cultural beliefs against Keiko's ideas, although I 
think she could have picked a better person to ally herself 
with than Vedek Winn. 

Sisko came out looking very good in this episode in my eyes
thanks to being the only person I thought really had a 
grip on the situation and a clue about the approach to 
take. The speechmaking in the middle bothered me quite a 
bit, though. For one thing, it was a lousy speech. For 
another thing, I think he was again being presumptuous in 
assuming that the Bajorans on the station felt generally 
friendly toward the Federation; judging from how trivial it 
appeared to be for Winn to turn the Bajoran station 
personnel against the Federation, I'd say he was either 
mistaken or deliberately overstating his case in the hope 
of making it come true. In any case, I didn't like it, so I 
wish they'd leave the blatant speechmaking to Picard.

I very much enjoyed Sisko's interaction with Vedek Bareil
on Bajor, especially the ear-grabbing bit; I would 
definitely support the idea of Bareil becoming a recurring 
character, as I thought the rapport between the Bajoran 
leader and Sisko worked well, and I liked Philip Anglim's 
easy, relaxed style in the role. The character of Bareil 
seems worth repeated encounters; a very spiritual man, a 
reformer, and also a very canny politicker -- almost 
sneaky. He and Sisko could work well together, I think; 
their styles are similar and clearly they understand each 
other even after such a short meeting. And I appreciated 
the way Bareil gave the impression that he knew all about 
Winn and her ideas and tactics, and the way he disarmed her 
on the station with his refusing her ear-grab and enlisting 
her help instead of turning the situation into a 
confrontation between the two of them; very smooth.

Unlike Bareil, though, I hope that Vedek Winn won't be
returning, as I didn't find her convincing at all. 
Although Louise Fletcher's performance wasn't truly bad, 
neither did she invest the character with the powerful 
charisma that Winn would have required to make it 
believable that she could turn all the Bajorans on the 
station against the Federation, let alone convince Neela to 
commit murder and throw away her life for Winn's 
principles. She simply didn't exude the almost hypnotic 
power a true fanatic can muster at will, the kind of power 
she would need to be valid as a recurring opponent to Sisko 
and Bareil. So I hope the bit about them not being able to 
prove anything on her wasn't a set-up for her to come back 
in the future. The role of a powerful demagogic Bajoran 
religious fanatic would be a fine enemy for Sisko and the 
Federation/Bajoran relationship in general, but not if it's 
Vedek Winn. 

I also had a bit of trouble with the character of Neela.
Robin Christopher's acting was fine, but I would really 
have liked some indication or hint of why this person who 
was such a fine engineer would be sufficiently fanatical in 
her religious beliefs to commit murder of another religious 
leader and throw her own life away as well. I couldn't see 
her motivation. As I said above, faith and science can go 
together, but religious fanaticism and science almost never 
do. It's sufficiently difficult to accept that I wanted to 
see a reason. Was she raised super-orthodox, went against 
her parents' wishes to study engineering, and then Vedek 
Winn preyed on her guilt to get control over her? Or what?

To sum up: I think I'd have liked this episode better if
they'd defined the Bajoran/Federation situation, and if it 
hadn't been the season ender. Not a bad show; just not one 
of the better ones either. 

Short Takes:
============

-- In the small Bajoran temple on DS9, there's another of
those spiral pools like the one that hid the cavern with 
the Orb in it in "Emissary". It's a neat looking thing and 
nice piece of architectural continuity. 

-- Neela says, "Federation and Bajoran personnel don't
interact much"; what about that Bajoran Bashir was making 
time with in Q-Less?? ;-)

-- Neela again mentions that the penalty for her acts will
be execution. Again we see that Bajorans are into capital 
punishment. Again I wonder what the Federation thinks of 
this. 

-- The garden scenes on Bajor looked a lot like they were
shot in or near a redwood forest; in particular the 
concrete pathway with the log railing looked a *lot* like 
Muir Woods, a preserve north of San Francisco that I 
visited when I was out there last year. That's a very long 
way to go for a location shoot, though, so it probably 
wasn't. 

-- It's not an important point, but they never did
establish who actually set off the bomb in the schoolroom. 
Was it Neela? Just randomly curious again.

-- The first time we saw O'Brien with a Bajoran assistant
who actually got a few lines was in "The Forsaken", when 
the assistant's name was Anara. Given Keiko's comments 
about "the last assistant you had" and the fact that the 
mysterious file's name was "ANA", the first three letters 
of Anara, I think perhaps Anara was originally supposed to 
be the assassin and have been present for *two* episodes 
prior to "Prophets", not just one, but something happened 
with the actress who played Anara and she had to be 
replaced. (Although naming a secret file with the first 
three letters of your name is more than a little 
braindead.) 

-- The shot of Bareil's shuttle docking was the same stock
shot they used once before, but I can't remember in what 
episode. (Move Along Home, maybe?) 

-- It's nice to hear that someone is actually studying the
wormhole. Given that it's known to be artificial, and that 
being able to create them on demand would completely 
revolutionise the scope of the Federation's influence, 
you'd think the Feds would have large teams of scientists 
out there trying to unravel and reproduce the wormhole 
effect... 

-- In the teaser, Vedek Winn accuses Keiko of teaching
"blasphemy"; well, just to be really nit picky, that 
should probably be "heresy" instead. Blasphemy is 
essentially taking the name of God in vain; heresy is the 
speaking/teaching/believing in doctrines different from 
those the established Church authorities have declared to 
be correct. This latter definition more closely fits what 
Vedek Winn accused Keiko of doing. (Pick, pick, pick.)

-- Also early in the show, O'Brien says "The fusion reactor
went down". Gulp! That must be a less serious problem in 
Trek's time than in ours or there'd have been wide-scale 
panic on the station. Also, isn't a fusion reactor badly 
outdated when they can use matter/antimatter annihilation? 
Must be just another case of primitive Cardassian 
equipment, I guess.

-- It's mildly interesting that although Odo was raised on 
Bajor, he doesn't seem to hold much stock in the Bajoran 
religion. 


-- Vedek Bareil makes a comment about Bajor having been a
"center of learning" in the past, and how people from many 
worlds came to study there. This struck me as kind of odd. 
I want a map of Federation space showing how all these 
areas interact. Okuda, Sternbach, how about it??

Next week: Summer reruns! I'm torn between disappointment
and relief ;-)

So, that's it for the season. If I get a chance in the next
couple of months I will probably do a season 
retrospective, perhaps focusing on the various characters, 
where they've gone, and where I'd like to see them go. No 
telling when, though. Thanks to everyone who sent me 
positive feedback and encouragement on the reviews and 
synopses; I hope things work out such that I can continue 
to do them next season and for seasons to come. Until then, 
take care, all.

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