Obviously, as a huge Trek fan, this critical post should be understood as stemming from my general love of the franchise...
I have been enjoying rewatching DS9, which was never a favorite Trek series of mine (Im mainly a TOS and VOY fan, and, I will admit, TAS...!).
Having just watched "Accession," the sixteenth episode of the fourth season, in which a poet from two centuries ago long thought dead reappears through the wormhole, becomes the new Emissary, and creates havoc by insisting that Bajor return to the "dejara" caste system, in which you pursue careers according to your family line, ie, now Kira must be an artist and renounce her military career, I am left feeling frustrated that even a series as carefully written and conceived as DS9 can still be so simplistic. Why are Trek plots often so bad?
Specifically, what I refer to is the mass decision to obey the new Emissary's call for a return to the "dejara," which even leads (SPOILER) to the murder of a member of an "unclean" caste by a Bajoran priest!
Is it really plausible that masses of citizens in a world would automatically revert to systems that existed quite some time ago simply because a leader demanded it? I thought that this episode might go in a more interesting direction and have a kind of prolonged debate between "The Sisko" and the new/old Emissary about the caste system, but no such debate occurs. Instead, what we get is a growing sense of panic, an atmosphere Trek is skillful at creating.
It also seems to me wildly implausible that the hardheaded, however religiously passionate, Kira would simply give up her commission and move to Bajor to set up shop as an artist...Kira struggles with this, but overall her position is one of passivity. If this is Trek's vision of religious faith, it's a pretty poor one, I fear.
Anyway, I'm hardly signaling DS9 out for this, which is why Im posting it here. Even one of VOY's most moving episodes, LINEAGE, in which B'Elanna wants to genetically alter her child because of her own pains about her race (the reason that she believes her father abandoned their family), compromises some of its impact by descending into a loony final act in which Tuvok and his security team must bust into Sickbay to prevent B'Elanna from harming her fetus....The great acting from the actors makes the scene that follows bw B'Elanna and Tom one of the best in the series, but it comes at real cost.
Overall, then, I believe that Trek is guilty of often quite shoddy plotting. My question is, why is this so consistently true throughout the franchise. Again, I ask as a Trek lover, not hater....
I have been enjoying rewatching DS9, which was never a favorite Trek series of mine (Im mainly a TOS and VOY fan, and, I will admit, TAS...!).
Having just watched "Accession," the sixteenth episode of the fourth season, in which a poet from two centuries ago long thought dead reappears through the wormhole, becomes the new Emissary, and creates havoc by insisting that Bajor return to the "dejara" caste system, in which you pursue careers according to your family line, ie, now Kira must be an artist and renounce her military career, I am left feeling frustrated that even a series as carefully written and conceived as DS9 can still be so simplistic. Why are Trek plots often so bad?
Specifically, what I refer to is the mass decision to obey the new Emissary's call for a return to the "dejara," which even leads (SPOILER) to the murder of a member of an "unclean" caste by a Bajoran priest!
Is it really plausible that masses of citizens in a world would automatically revert to systems that existed quite some time ago simply because a leader demanded it? I thought that this episode might go in a more interesting direction and have a kind of prolonged debate between "The Sisko" and the new/old Emissary about the caste system, but no such debate occurs. Instead, what we get is a growing sense of panic, an atmosphere Trek is skillful at creating.
It also seems to me wildly implausible that the hardheaded, however religiously passionate, Kira would simply give up her commission and move to Bajor to set up shop as an artist...Kira struggles with this, but overall her position is one of passivity. If this is Trek's vision of religious faith, it's a pretty poor one, I fear.
Anyway, I'm hardly signaling DS9 out for this, which is why Im posting it here. Even one of VOY's most moving episodes, LINEAGE, in which B'Elanna wants to genetically alter her child because of her own pains about her race (the reason that she believes her father abandoned their family), compromises some of its impact by descending into a loony final act in which Tuvok and his security team must bust into Sickbay to prevent B'Elanna from harming her fetus....The great acting from the actors makes the scene that follows bw B'Elanna and Tom one of the best in the series, but it comes at real cost.
Overall, then, I believe that Trek is guilty of often quite shoddy plotting. My question is, why is this so consistently true throughout the franchise. Again, I ask as a Trek lover, not hater....
