A Kira/Pre-Discovery Rewatch

[Bad Thoughts]

I've been mulling over various alternatives to the classic rewatch. I did my second time through the series in 2013, and since then, I've seen most DS9 episodes multiple times. I would like to find a new way to think about the series, and I've mulled over several possibilities. However, I noticed a thread in the Discovery forum, which asks which episodes would people watch in preparation for Discovery. So that's what I am going to do.

My DS9 rewatch will focus on episodes that (1) track thematically to TOS and (2) that focus on female agency. On the first account, I'm going to sidestep those episodes that are direct continuations of TOS stories (so I'm not necessarily going to include Trials and Tribble-ations or the Mirror Universe): the more thematic similarities that appear between Inter Arma and Errand of Mercy, for instance. The most important aspect is the second. Discovery has been presented as the story from the perspective of a woman who is not the one in command. Episodes that focus on Kira might be the most compelling of all those focused on women throughout Trek. I'm sure some will argue that Janeway and Seven of Nine are more prominent, to which I would add that Janeway's position assured that she would be able to act and lead as she pleased, and the Seven's journey was more about self-discovery, not agency.

I also think this could make interesting preparation because Kira was different than all the other characters that filled the "first officer role." It seems she had more stories of her own, and they were driven by her own initiative in many cases.

Anyway, these are the episode that I am planning to rewatch and, of course, comment on:

Emissary
Battle Lines
Progress
Duet
The Circle trilogy
Necessary Evil
The Maquis
The Collaborator
Jem'hadar
Civil Defense
Defiant
Destiny
Shakaar
Facets
Rejoined
Little Green Men
Indiscretion
Accession
The Ship
Things Past
Rapture
The Darkness and the Light
By Inferno's Light
Ties of Blood and Water
Call to Arms
Time to Stand
Rocks and Shoals
Behind the Lines
Wrongs Darker than Night and Death
Image in the Sand
Shadows and Symbols
Siege of AR-558
Chimera
When It Rains to What You Leave Behind

Not every episode is a Kira episode, but this is more of a hybrid than anything else. Any thoughts?

 

[Anthony Sabre]

Might consider adding Second Skin. Kira awakes to find herself having become what she most despises... a Cardassian. That episode also sets up Ties of Blood and Water.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'd add Past Prologue to that list for the "Kira focus".

 

[Anthony Sabre]

Kind of off topic, but I've always felt Past Prologue and Shakaar are out of order from a character perspective. Season 1 Kira would have taken the actions in Shakaar whereas season 3 Kira would have taken the actions in Past Prologue.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Emissary

Most Trek pilots are variations on the same theme: astrological forces exposes the crew to some form of higher intelligence that forces them to reveal the strength of their values. At its core, Emissary is in that vein; Michael Piller even admitted that it started as a clone of Encounter at Farpoint. It diverges by having strong psychological components, the former for our new commander, and the latter for his first officer, Major Kira. When I watched the episode when it premiered, Sisko's family life struck me the most. Indeed, I think it is still the important emotional core of the episode, carrying over into the sections in which the wormhole aliens probe Sisko's past. Cirroc Lofton does a pretty good job, especially for his age, as one of the Prophets.

As central as Sisko's psychological journey is, Kira is put in the unusual position of driving the political direction of the episode. At first, it's not terribly interesting: she delivers necessary information about Bajor's political climate and challenges the resolve of Sisko, and by extension the Federation, to play a fair, honest role with Barjorans. She demands that they look at the planet and society as it is, not as part of some galactic project. After giving Bashir a "WTF" look as he comically hits on Dax, Kira dresses him down for treating Bajor's problems as an adventure. Opaka does the same with Sisko, making the two Bajoran voices female.

In the late acts, it is Kira who makes decisions about how to use the station's assets, such as they were, in order to respond to the Cardassian threat. She is assertive, combative, and defi--- (uh, maybe I'll reserve that word) in the face of superior firepower. Of course, she is using the resources she has for nationalistic purposes, not the kind of cerebral calculations that are typical of Starfleet. I am not sure to what extent Kira drives the story: she is responding to the threat at hand, and the ultimate resolution comes via Sisko. However, she pushes her luck, holding out as long as possible in order to find an advantageous position. And "there's your wormhole" sounded like "stick it up your ... ."

Minor observations:

• Sisko with the goat is better, but he would not work in this episode.
  
• I have no idea why they didn't fix Kira's hair in her first scene. They obviously did for the second, on the promenade.
  
• I forgot how much thicker Terry Farrell's Iowa accent was.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

That episode also sets up Ties of Blood and Water.

Good point. I'll include it.

I'd add Past Prologue to that list for the "Kira focus".

I'll take a look at it.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Past Prologue

I remember being confused by this episode when it first aired. As much as I liked that it attended to the details of politics, I thought the episode was overwhelmed by the guest actors, especially the reappearance of the Duras sisters. (Not to mention, Kohn Ma sounded like a cross-cultural wedding, not a terrorist group.) Our crew spent too much time reacting, even leaning on the Cardassians to get things done. With hindsight, there are recurring issues that will power better episodes down the road. Klingons, Cardassians, Bajoran terrorists--the episode balances many factions quite well, obviously moving the the series beyond the one-on-one encounters of the previous series. It still feels like this is an episode about Lursa and Betor, Tahna. and Garak, but many of the bricks of future episodes are being made here.

The power of the guests overwhelmed my sense of what Kira was doing in the episode. I think her struggle--how to put her experience as a nationalist/revolutionary/terrorist to work for civil society--is compelling, but it is rightly the b-story of the episode. While she fights against Starfleet, not yet willing to trust them, we can see the difficulty she has channeling her narrative of being involved in a heroic struggle into political negotiations and policy decisions. I wish that the episode had in some way made it seem as if trying to mainstream the Bajoran extremists was productive.

This episode also introduces a recurring theme for Kira: hero worship. She tends to defer too often those people, mostly men, who have larger than life reputations. I suspect that this was intentional, and that the writers planned to gradually peel that away as the character attain more confidence.

Minor reflections:

• Bashir: uh, no.
• The first Kira-Odo conference was pretty cool.
• I think this episode had the first egregious example of, um, Kira walking away. In spite of rhetoric, Trek sexualizes its women, which is why there are so many high angles on Marina Sirtis. I think it is funny because in order to show Kira's, uh, walk, the camera needed to be pretty low and zoomed out, putting the, uh, walks of other characters into frame.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Battle Lines

I'm finding it difficult to overestimate the impact that Camille Saviola had on DS9's first season. We are told repeatedly that Kai Opaka is the most beloved Bajoran. However, we see almost none of that reverence and admiration (not until she dies). I think most of the admiration that we feel is direct response to Saviola's performance itself, who projects an urgent, forthright religiosity. If I were being honest, I'd say that Opaka's first appearance wasn't much on paper, but Saviola really chewed the scenery. In this second appearance, before her death, we feel both her honesty and urgency. It makes sense that Sisko wants to please her, and that he is not doing it out of diplomatic courtesy. And when she dies, Kira's sorrow makes sense because we feel it directly to some extent.

I say all this because we haven't had much build up to this point. We don't see the hordes of Bajorans prostrating themselves before her as they would other significant Bajorans, even Sisko, in future episodes. And without Saviola, Visitor's performance would have been way over the top. The mourning scene was its own thing, and the actors had to hit specific cues in a short amount of time. In two others scenes, Opaka disarms Kira. The first, when Kira goes off on a rant about the lack of preparation of She-la's followers, Opaka finds the right words and tone to stop her. In the second, Opaka confronts Kira over the violence that has characterized her past. Both scenes are powerful, although I wish the second ended more in Kira feeling ashamed rather than contrite.

All this points to an episode in which Kira seems to react more than act. There is the scene in which she grabs the phaser to close collapse the cave's ceiling, which is definitely surprising for Star Trek. We might have had another hero worship episode, based on her own sense of inferiority.

Minor observations

• The conversation about Morn was amusing, certainly pointing to an early effort to use Farrell's comedic chops.
• I think this would have been the right time to bring in the goat, but not the bald head, for Sisko.
• The station's crew could have looked more alive: it's the f--in' KAI.
• This episode, like Past Prologue, ends without a proper epilogue to its detriment.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

I miss the Opaka character. She possessed a wisdom and sense of self which went beyond even Jadzia. However, there's no way they could have added the political intrigue and scheming which was introduced by Winn. Winn Adami is the anti-Opaka in pretty much every way... and that seems to be the point entirely.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ Have to agree, more Opaka would've been awesome, though she would've been a hindrance for the power-hungry Winn.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Progress

I've dithered in writing my thoughts about this episode because I know that it is often judged on the quality of its MacGuffin. Progress is a rather intimate story based around the conflict between government policy and personal freedom. Basically, the train is coming through town and you gotta leave. What this episode does differently is scale: most of the dialogue happens between two characters, each attempting to outmaneuver the other with self-respect, turning them into the odd couple in the process. For Kira, it is an episode that appears intent on showing character growth, attempting to weigh different priorities without doing everything "for Bajor." She finds that her personal ties to Sisko both foster and hinder her anti-establishment attitude. There is more subtly written into the story than allowed for in previous scripts or, indeed, some of the scripts yet to come in this season.

Minor observations:

• Self-sealing stem bolts will be a running gag, but this episode seems to introduce numerous exotic staples of the series, like yamok sauce and katterpods.
  
• The best that can be said about the b-story is that it is inert.
  
• Dax shows some of the personality that will become central to the character in future seasons.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Dramatis Personae

I don't know if DS9 did fewer "possession episodes" than the other Trek series, but I do think that DS9 did them most poorly. Fascination is probably most notorious because it is so poor. However, this one seems to have a certain notoriety because of its early display of Sisko's obsessive behavior. I can't say that I have much love for the episode. I think that the story doesn't clearly establish the relationship between the ancient conflict that the crew is acting out and the normal tensions baked into the show. Sisko and Dax seem random in their behavior, hardly able to concentrate on the events around them. Conversely, it seems that O'Brien and Kira are effectively recontextualizing the ancient conflict into the suspicions that plague Federation-Bajor relations.

If anything, the episode highlights where the characters might be able to go. Elements of the Intendant make an obvious appearance, with Kira's slinky walk and bisexual assertiveness. There is a moment in which goatee Sisko manifests himself. Odo seems more present in this episode than any before, ably manipulating various characters in order to manage the situation.

Overall, forgettable.

 

[In Thy Image]

Interesting idea for a rewatch. Perhaps you should consider adding "Empok Nor" to the list. It's not Kira-centric, but it was one of only two episodes written by Bryan Fuller for DS9 (the other being The Darkness and the Light, which you included). It may prove insightful.