"Cardassians."
Seeing a trailer or a reading a description of it doesn't impl;y that this episode would be great Trek.. I mean ... "a Cardassian child bites someone on the hand, leading to a hearing as to his status." Not exactly a high octane Trek adventure. Even fans of DS9 point more to the Dominion War, Necessary Evil and Improbably cause as the the true great episodes of the series, but this quiet episode is so important. The ambiguities, the drama, the political intrigue here are what make those other big episodes truely work. When DS9 first started I was put out that the pilot or subsequent eps never gave a reason for why the Cardassians left, I thought I'd miss something. But then I became fascinated. The Bajoran Resistance says that they won enough victories to drive them out, and Cardie officials say it was a "political decision." I realised as I started watching that I was glad a simple answer was never given. Even in this episode, it's presented. After all, if the writers wanted easy answers, the question would have been "Why did the Cardassians leave Bajor?" but in this epidoe Garak askes (emphasis mine "Why do you think the Cardassians left Bajor?"
That's a far more interesting question.
I really love this episode.
Seeing a trailer or a reading a description of it doesn't impl;y that this episode would be great Trek.. I mean ... "a Cardassian child bites someone on the hand, leading to a hearing as to his status." Not exactly a high octane Trek adventure. Even fans of DS9 point more to the Dominion War, Necessary Evil and Improbably cause as the the true great episodes of the series, but this quiet episode is so important. The ambiguities, the drama, the political intrigue here are what make those other big episodes truely work. When DS9 first started I was put out that the pilot or subsequent eps never gave a reason for why the Cardassians left, I thought I'd miss something. But then I became fascinated. The Bajoran Resistance says that they won enough victories to drive them out, and Cardie officials say it was a "political decision." I realised as I started watching that I was glad a simple answer was never given. Even in this episode, it's presented. After all, if the writers wanted easy answers, the question would have been "Why did the Cardassians leave Bajor?" but in this epidoe Garak askes (emphasis mine "Why do you think the Cardassians left Bajor?"
That's a far more interesting question.
I really love this episode.