The Arguments made in the Episode Sanctuary, The Skrreea on Bajor?

[Mordwyn Fen-Dweller]

One of the episodes that really stuck in my mind in regards to it's message during my first watch through of DS9 was the episode Sanctuary in Season 2, when the Skrreea, Displaced aliens from the Gamma Quadrant, make it through the wormhole and realise that Bajor is actually Kentanna, the Skrreeans long lost home world and ask to be allowed to settle.

Obviously the incident with Haneeks son doesn't help the situation and because of the famine on Bajor, the Provisional Government doesn't think their resources sufficient to allow the Skrreeans to settle. The Skrreeans are shocked and insulted by the choice of the ruling powers of Bajor and Haneek even reminds Major Kira of the Skrreeans abilities at farming and agriculture, leaving the watcher to ponder what decision was the right one?

First of all, I have some questions regarding the issues raised in this episode, why is Bajor suffering a famine when they have access to Federation Replicators? My Guess is perhaps a shunning of Federation tech in order to be self sufficient, though it's strange they'd put their people through this just after a 50 year occupation just to try and make a point.

Second, The Skrreean point in regards to settling on Bajor initially is Religious in nature, but it seems to completely disregard the Bajoran religion, which is also based on Bajor being the centre point of the religion (the Prophets chose Bajor, they chose the Bajorans). While this isn't necessarily an argument against Skrreean settlement, it is a point, it could be the Prophets will simply not allow it to happen.

In the end, I think Bajor chose correctly seeing as the Skrreeans had another planet to colonise, for the reasons given in the episode and more. But it's a great episode, it gives the Bajorans even more of that Jewish, Chosen people vibe and brings up a worthy ethical question in our own world.

Please add to the discussion If I missed anything, what did you think about the decision the Bajorans made?

 

[cgervasi]

why is Bajor suffering a famine when they have access to Federation Replicators?

I think the replicators require raw materials plus energy. Maybe Bajor doesn't have enough, and the UFP provides only limited aid to non-member planets. Maybe the UFP sees giving aid to a planet without a stable world gov't as interfering with their development, similar to a Prime Directive violation. Such aid could be exploited by one side in a civil war, making the UFP look exploitative. Also, the Provisional Gov't of Bajor may be cautious about taking any handout, esp. if there may be strings attached, given their recent experience being occupied by Cardassia. Maybe the UFP would want Bajor to peg its currency to the Federation Credit, which might make it harder for Bajor to issue bonds. The UFP would promise aid, so Bajor doesn't need to issue bonds, but Bajors might be skeptical about such an agreement that at least in the near-term makes them dependent on a superpower to feed them. They want to develop domestic agriculture and industry.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

They've got replicators but they don't have billions of them.

I don't think Bajor's religion factored into their decision not to let the Skreeans settle. I think it had more to do with assuming the Skreeans would not be as self sufficient as they promised and they'd be a strain on the economy to support, and also the fact they are just viscerally unpleasant by human and Bajoran standard. As much as in the abstract I'd like to think I would be immediately accepting of a people with flaking skin and uncontrollably belligerent troglo-males, I'm frankly not that evolved.

The writers made the Skreeans viscerally unpleasant to get at people's inherent involuntary prejudice to anyone that doesn't seem like what they're used to.

The Bajorans reacted to the Skreeans, frankly, exactly the way we do to the Skreeans of the world. Should they have let the Skreeans settle? They have exactly the decision we do, the moral imperative of helping people in need weighed against the practical cost and potential risk of helping those people. It's only wrong if you let your personal discomfort be the tipping factor.

 

[Mordwyn Fen-Dweller]

You guys made some great points all of which I agree with, Jirin reminded me of the Skrreans flakey skin and growths, except the part regarding replicators, correct us if i'm wrong.

Seeing as the Federation is all too willing to provide industrial scale replicators to the Cardassians post Klingon invasion, surely they would send food replicators to a planet where the food output levels have reached the point of famine even if it would be seen as interventionism for political capital. surely there are many voices in the Bajoran Provisional government that are Pro UFP that would jump at the idea?

 

[kkt]

Starfleet has a few replicators, not huge numbers. The replicators are presumably being used to make farm equipment which will in the long term reduce the famine, not making food directly. Moving heavy equipment or lots of food around on a starship has got to cost something somehow, whether the Federation uses money or not.

 

[Tundra Saint]

1.I don't think they have enough replicators for every Bajoran village, nor the energy to create enough food for everyone on the planet with what they have.

2.Frankly if the writers wanted to make the Skreean position more sympathetic, they shouldn't have had Starfleet find them another world to settle on so quickly. If there only other option was to wander the quadrant until they found a planet not claimed by anyone I might feel more bad for them.

 

[cgervasi]

surely there are many voices in the Bajoran Provisional government that are Pro UFP that would jump at the idea?

I got the idea there are, but there are also reactionary elements the push the idea of Bajor for the Bajora.

The Bajora were artists, builders, and philosophers when other plants' peoples were barely standing erect. Foreign infidels plundered our world and got power and wealth on our backs. They occupied our homeland, and when they couldn't extract anymore resources, another foreign superpower comes with the exact same line as the last oppressor: We're here to help. They want to build schools to teach your children that the sacred book of the Prophets, the one your sweet grandmother gave you that gave you the strength and faith to survive horrors these candyasses couldn't even imagine, is all superstition! They want to teach that the world can be understood by breaking things down into their parts and examining them with no moral context-- just primitives' incorrect description of "wormhole aliens". Our culture will be gone in three generations, as surely as if the Borg had wiped it out. Their Federation root beer will suck them them in, trading away our "Olive Tree" for the "Lexus". Instead of following a Bajoran way they'll be seeking adulation for discovery another "subspace anomaly", a godless meaningless life of chemical processes forming selfish genes powered by energy from stars. That's how the Feds see existence.

If the Bajora developed mathematics first, isn't it time that we become self-sufficient again. Maybe they can learn our languages. Maybe they can adapt and put their family name first, not wanting to draw attention to their marginalized minority status!

Godless off-worlders created the Bajoran diaspora, and now they offer us a solution: anti-matter cells, industrial replicators, farming equipment. The only price is that we give up who we are. No thanks. Bajor for the Bajora!
​

More liberal elements respond:

Foreign powers have things we need to help us get back on our feet. Our beliefs can stand up to scrutiny. Studying the "quantum resonance" of the wormhole doesn't make our sacred beliefs any less true because they never rested on empiricism. We can't go back in time and stop the Bajoran diaspora. Right here and now there are people who want to buy what we produce and invest in our planet. Do we want a rich planet partially owned by foreign investors or a poor planet proudly owned by starving Bajora? Maybe it's part of the Prophets' plan for Cardassians and the Federations to get the message of charity, humility, and faith by a painful means we don't fully understand. I don't claim to understand the ways of the prophets. But right now there are people who want to gives industrial replicators and energy that we can use to rebuild our world. Is the way of the Prophets to turn them down, to not help them and them help us because they look different and speak a different language? The galactic community will go on with or without us, but we're all better for it if it's with us. Let's take these first step. If we don't like it, we float our Bajoran currency and maybe nationalize our industries. But if it works, we start investing and benefiting in a whole galaxy. None of that affects our timeless beliefs.​

Major Kira leans toward the more conservative elements at first. It takes a decade to start opening to the rest of the galaxy after the occupation. But in galactic history, that's the blink of an eye.

 

[Timo]

A major question here is whether Bajor actually has a "famine" at all. Perhaps it's nothing more than a negotiating tactic that the Bajorans choose to exaggerate some local problems in food distribution?

It clearly is a localized problem even if we take the negotiators at face value - it's something that in a worst case scenario just might "spread". And we know from other episodes that Bajor has difficulty in at least four related areas:

1) Some of the fields are poisoned by Cardassians ("Shakaar")
2) There isn't enough energy ("Progress"; "Necessary Evil")
3) The industries don't have enough replicators ("For the Cause")
4) There are local water shortages, partially due to Cardassian meddling ("Storyteller")

Fundamentally, it would be a matter of distribution in all four respects, just like it is here on Earth today. Those areas that can't raise their own crops need replicated food, meaning they need either replicators and energy delivery, or then direct delivery of food. Those areas that can grow food might need more water. And food is but one of the things that need to be replicated.

Now, transportation by transporter is highly efficient: we never see our heroes skip it as an option due to capacity limitations. But creating the required infrastructure may be time-consuming and expensive (even were DS9 to be towed back to Bajoran orbit, its own transporters would only be able to handle less than one hemisphere, and even their supposed ability to deal with major loads of ore might not suffice for the multidestination needs of food delivery). And vehicular transport is likely to suffer from Cardassian-confiscated or -sabotaged equipment for the upcoming decades, even if some "trunk lines" get rebuilt quickly.

Ultimately, then, it's a matter of priorities. Should all of Bajor be provided with the renewed means to raise crops? A bit silly when just beyond the horizon looms the era where crops become outdated altogether. But should specific areas be turned into replicator paradises first while others persist with farming and get the distribution infrastructure (re-)established? There are downsides to that as well. Bajor is no doubt prevaricating as of "Sanctuary" still, creating local problems contrasting with areas of plenty, this in turn creating even more problems.

That the Skreeans would have other options is a Star Trek staple: basically every episode features a Class M planet capable of sustaining billions but only sporting a colony of hundreds if that. Indeed, the UFP must have a government agency dedicated to dishing out free planets, and in this case carefully choosing three out of a hundred options: "These aren't too far away, won't offend the Cardassians or the Miradorn, don't have endangered species in their raindeserts, and we won't lose any precious minerals or strategic ports if donating 'em".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mordwyn Fen-Dweller]

I just watched the TNG episode "Who watches the watchers" and Picards professions of how the Federation is merely advanced and not superior and have limitations reminded me of this discussion in that they are likely many things to overcome in restoring a strip mined occupied planet, but there are other examples of such a seemingly doomsday occurrence leading to recovery and a paradise like world, we know Earth suffered from Nuclear exchanges during the 21st century IIRC, 200 years later it seems like a lush planet.

I agree with you Timo, the message of the Episode would have hit home a lot harder if they were forced to become space nomads or something at the end, perhaps they're given a small sliver of hope, maybe Sisko telling them Starfleet is trying to locate a planet, but leave it on a bleak note.

 

[Kor]

I think it would have been interesting if there had been some ancient Bajoran prophecies about a group of long-lost refugees who would come to Bajor some day through the celestial temple to find their original homeworld.

Kor

 

[Nakita Akita]

I think they already had half Cardassian half Bajoran people that weren't liked living on Bajor, they didn't want add in half Skreean half Bajoran people too.
In addition, they were having a hard time feeding the population as it was, they didn't need extra mouths.
I guess I'm not as deep thinking as others.

 

[Tundra Saint]

It would have been more interesting if the Skreeans turned out to be descendants of Ancient Bajorans who got trapped on the otherside of the wormhole. That would explain their prophesies and give them a better reason to want to settle on Bajor instead of the other planet.

 

[urbandefault]

I think the Skreeans were wrong about Bajor being their lost home.

Also, and I might be mistaken, but I sort of remember Bajor not wanting Federation interference while they rebuilt. They'd already gone through one occupation and were being cautious. That is probably what extended to the refusal of Skreean settlers. Again, I might be mistaken, but it seems like that was my impression at last viewing.

 

[Hunter Zolomon]

Plus i am certain that if the bajorans still had a mostly cash and capitalist economy, introducing replicators on a massive scale would throw their economy into turmoil and i also got the impression that bajorans where not looking for hand outs from the federation, they are a proud people.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I can't rememember. Were the Skreeans tested to see if they had any genetic similarities to Bajorans or any other life on Bajor?

As far as the replicator situation, they had self-replicating mines, why not self-replicating replicators? One industrial replicator ought to be able to make, at least, a smaller version.

 

[Hunter Zolomon]

I can't rememember. Were the Skreeans tested to see if they had any genetic similarities to Bajorans or any other life on Bajor?

As far as the replicator situation, they had self-replicating mines, why not self-replicating replicators? One industrial replicator ought to be able to make, at least, a smaller version.

The replicator mines where made during wartime and with federation tech for that matter. Plus it has been established earlier bajor doesnt seem to like federation hand outs.

 

[Mordwyn Fen-Dweller]

Replicators can't replicate a new replicator, which is one of a few downfalls of replicators

 

[Timo]

Umm, DS9 explicitly tells us that a replicator can easily replicate a replicator. That's what the minefield blocking the wormhole is all about.

And indeed, what possible reason could there be for the replicator being unable to replicate a replicator? It's not as if we ever actually learn that anything would be unreplicable - it's just that certain things are better, faster or more cheaply obtained through other means, and some would take way more resources or time than the heroes or the villains have in order to be perfectly replicated.

Apparently, a mere replicating gadget isn't that difficult... Or then the price to be paid is something the military can afford to pay in this special case. We may also infer that replicating a big industrial replicator would take more than another big industrial replicator, even if a simple device capable of producing another simple device is doable.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Yeah, maybe something as complex as a replicator can't be replicated. A mine is probably very simple in comparison.

Though, we never saw how Voyager kept churning out shuttles. They might have replicated all the components, then they had to assemble them by hand (more or less). Or there's the replicator assembly line theory.

 

[Timo]

The thing about the mines was that if a mine were lost, another would pop up in its place. But if the new mine did not contain a working replicator, then it would be a trivial matter to eliminate the minefield, simply by keeping on firing.

Now, there are obvious problems with the logistics of these cannibalistic mines, but they might be overcome. Not without the replication of replicators, though.

Timo Saloniemi