2x10
"Sanctuary"
"You were right. Bajor is not Kentanna."
-Haneek
"Sanctuary" is an episode with its heart in the right place, but its execution and overall dialogue rather lacking. It should have been a deep investigation into the decision-making of a war-torn people and a look at two seemingly hopeless societies, ending on a dark, somber note. The music attempts to convey this, but the writing and way things unfold simply don't live up to the heaps of potential the premise offered. I am left largely emotionally unmoved by an hour which clearly aimed to move me emotionally, so I'm not particularly impressed.
After a brief scene between Sisko and Kira involving the commander reminding her to submit the current month's duty roster and her explanation that she's been quite busy arguing with Bajoran Provisional Government leaders, we head over to Quark's, except this time, a famous Bajoran musician is performing something just a little reminiscent of Deep Space Nine's opening theme song. Among the more noteworthy things here are Morn crying and Kira and Quark arguing over the piece the musician is playing, specifically its impact on the Ferengi's profits. It seems disagreement is going to be a bit of a theme of the episode.
An unidentified vessel comes through the wormhole, and its four passengers, Beamed Aboard Just In The Nic Of Time (TM), are having tremendous difficulty with the universal translator. Well, everyone is, really – their language patterns are hard to process so we spend much of the early parts watching Sisko, Kira and the others incapable of communicating throug the lazy Star Trek way of doing things. This is actually kind of a breath of fresh air; it's nice to see something go wrong with so convenient a plot device sometimes. It also highlights the overall message of the episode, or at least I think it was intended to: sometimes two sides just can't see eye-to-eye on things. Had "Sanctuary" delivered on its scope, this would have been an excellent opener, and as it stands, I still enjoyed it.
We eventually reach a point where the translator begins functioning properly, and by now Kira has bonded with the apparent leader of the four, who call themselves Skkreans. The leader is a woman, but she is only leader of this small group because in Skkrean society, women are rulers and men, subservient. In actuality, her place in their culture is humble, being a simple farmer. I can't help but wonder if the extremely matriarchal nature of Skkrean society is supposed to be relevant to the overall message as well; I don't quite see it, since neither Bajoran nor Federation system of rule dictates an extremely patriarchal ruling caste. It is important to note that the woman refers to Skkrean males as 'too emotional', however, given the climax of the story.
By this point, Kira and the Skkrean, Haneek, have formed a friendship; I would imagine not least of which because Kira is the woman in the highest seat of power on the station, and because she probably sees something of herself and her people in her new friend. Haneek soon explains to our lead cast that her people are scattered and seeking the Eye of the Universe – no doubt the newly-discovered wormhole – because they were conquered by a people who was in turn recently conquered, themselves... by a group calling themselves the Dominion.
The ominous music and exchanged glances here are for all the viewers who had tuned into "Rules of Acquisition" a few weeks back; the reaction from watchers during this episode's first run was probably something of slight shock at the idea that they would bring that name up again, and that it would be accompanied by a darker connotation. My compliments once again to the season's behind-the-scenes command crew for their layered way of introducing that pesky Dominion, which everyone reading this no doubt knows gets all front-and-center with us increasingly as the show goes on.
Fast-forward through some triteness and fluff; in particular, I found the bits with the Jake/Nog duo and the young Skkrean male (the late Andrew Koenig, in fact) to be rather dull and lifeless. (Although Nog's hog-like screeching was entertaining.) I get where the writers were going with this, I really do; increasing the tension between Skkrean and non-Skkrean as the station is flooded with them throughout the hour is a good idea. But the execution, as I found myself thinking more and more, not less and less, as things progressed... it didn't exactly pique my interest.
Eventually, the Skkrean farmer Haneek, now the reluctant leader of her people, comes to the conclusion that Bajor in Kentanna, the world her people were spread out seeking. A 'Planet of Sorrow', in which we're led to assume the Skkreans believed they would assist and help thrive; Bajor seems to fit the bill, so the Skkreans officially request immigration. The only problem is, there are three million of them, and the Provisional Government is definitely not going to agree. This makes the government look rather much like jackasses, but that's okay, it's in keeping with their apparent beliefs and they do have a very solid point in that their projections have indicated the odds of a Skkrean settlement succeeding are quite slim, and thus the Bajorans would need to assist them when they can't exactly assist themselves. This is all well and good, and drives the episode forward, but some of the camera angles on Haneek linger too long, the music gets a bit too melodramatic, and in your humble reviewer's opinion, "Sanctuary" flies the coop.
From hereon out, there is an attempt at something powerful, but it fails to deliver. And failure to deliver at the climax of an episode tends to erase all manner of build-up, doesn't it? Haneek is outraged by the proceedings, which is reasonable, but her behavior toward Kira afterward is annoying. Kira makes every attempt to reconcile, and hopes to remain friends, but the Skkrean will not have it. It casts an unfavorable light on the guest character; I do emphasize that it's understandable that she'd be angry, but the direction here presents her as more of a person immobilized by stubbornness than anything. Had the writing been better, we might have seen her point more clearly; as it stands, the message of the episode begins to dissipate, because we're beginning to see the Skkreans as a second group of jackasses. All of a sudden, I felt like everyone except Kira was a jackass, and personally, when I see two groups of jackasses refusing to get along, I tend to shrug my shoulders and walk away.
Then disaster strikes – the Skkrean boy played by Andrew Koenig has taken one of their many ships and run off toward Bajor. This, too, is hackneyed; while perhaps true to the boy's presentation, the last time we see him on-screen is with Jake, and though his words ring true and connect to his actions, we don't see him during the ordeal. I can see where the writers were going by never showing him – by focusing on the reaction shots of all the players involved – but it somehow only worsens a sense of a rushed, lacking finale.
And there really just isn't enough rising tension in a natural enough way to justify this kind of ending. I just didn't feel it, and when his ship inevitably blew up to attempt (but fail) to drive home a message, I was more concerned with the awkwardness of the late Andrew Koenig running off and getting himself killed given the terrible tragedy of the actor's suicide than I was with anything "Sanctuary" was trying to tell me. When Haneek departs alongside the others of her kind for the planet Sisko had insisted they go to – a genuinely good-sounding planet with mild winters and lots and lots of farmland – she reminds Kira that she believes the Bajorans were wrong. Well, that's nice. Maybe they were; maybe they weren't. At this point, I really didn't care much anymore.
The funny thing is, I'm still going to give this one a middleground score instead of a more tellingly failing one, because there is one thing and one thing only that totally kept me going from start to finish: Kira. Nana Visitor is no slouch, and my previous reviews don't hesitate to bring that up. But seeing her twisted and turned by the actions of her own people and the shattering of a friendship which strikes a certain chord with the Bajoran and her plight is truly moving. It wasn't supposed to be the only thing moving me, but it was. And yet it moved me so well that I'll remember "Sanctuary" for it and I may even smile.
Rating: 5/10
