“THE COLLABORATOR”
Kai Bareil? “In your dreams, my child!”
I remember back in the day there was a heck of a backlash against these Bajoran-focused episodes. Those were pretty dark days when it seemed that most of fandom hated DS9 and decried it as too “boring”, “dark”, or that ol’ favourite—“it’s NOT Star Trek”. It obviously didn’t take Paramount long to register this bile and it was only exacerbated by the fact the Bajoran episodes were scoring pretty much the lowest ratings of the first two seasons.
I think by this point, at the tail end of season two, we can already see a shift of emphasis away from Bajor and toward a broader canvas—something that would definitely define the remodelled third season. Fortunately, being the rebels they were, the writing staff would continue to do some Bajor storylines, even if it became only something of a once-or-twice-a-season event. Nevertheless, “The Collaborator” still feels as if it’s something of a last hurrah as it marks the close of a storyline that has stretched across the two seasons: the election of the Kai.
I’m one of those rare people that usually enjoyed the Bajoran political episodes even back when it wasn’t “cool” to like DS9, much less the “boring politics”. Indeed, many of the show’s finest episodes in its first two seasons were Bajor focused, from the Circle trilogy, to “Duet”, “In the Hands of the Prophets” and (yes!) “Progress”
To me, these episodes were the product of excellent, sophisticated storytelling and impressive world-building. In previous and subsequent Treks, attempts at politics tended to be overly simplistic and two-dimensional, but DS9’s writers were altogether more masterful and often wove fascinating tapestries with a great sense of moral ambiguity. “The Collaborator” is one such triumph and also demonstrates, like “The Wire” a couple of episodes back, how wonderful this show is at “bottle shows”. Like “The Wire”, this starts off quietly, but builds into a fascinating mystery with a twist that will have ramifications for the entire duration of the show’s remaining run.
The arrival of collaborator Kubis Oak on the station sets the story into motion; a character that draws the contempt of just about everyone who encounters him, with Kira, in particular, tearing strips off him. In “Duet” we encountered a Cardassian who was “just following orders” but who was emotionally destroyed by the atrocities that he witnessed. Kubis, on the other hand, doesn’t seem nearly as repentant as Marritza. It seems he saw little wrong with working for the Cardassians, even though it meant consigning his fellow Bajorans to the mines, which meant certain death. Kubis likely believed he was someone making the best of a bad situation and doing his best to “serve the only legitimate government”. He seems like a sad, broken old man, but it’s never clear just how much of that is because of the injury he indirectly inflicted upon his fellow Bajorans, or the fact he’s been punished for it with exile.
Clearly, Kubis is the polar opposite of Kira, who refused to make the best of things and comply with the Cardassians, and instead risked life and limb to liberate her people. I liked the moral ambiguity, however. The episode doesn’t deal in moral certainty. If, Prophets forbid, you or I found ourselves in the same position as the Bajorans, how can we know for certain whether we’d be a Kubis Oak or a Kira Nerys? Unfortunately, the Kubis storyline gets forgotten halfway through the episode and we never learn what becomes of him, but it still neatly sets up the central storyline.
As we later learn, the whole episode is about impossible choices—choices in which there’s no way to keep your hands clean. Louise Fletcher is once again a joy to behold as the horrendously vile Vedek Winn, who just happens to have dirt on fellow Kai competitor Bareil on the eve of the election. What I love is the way she manipulates Kira into doing her dirty work for her, and the gut-wrenching position Kira finds herself having to investigate the man she loves.
I’ve already made it clear how weak I’ve found Philip Anglim’s portrayal of Bareil. In theory, the character and his relationship with Kira is fine, but in execution it’s badly damaged by one of the most monotonous, emotionless performances I’ve ever seen by a Trek semi-regular. In a cast as talented as this, and in a season that’s boasted some wonderful guest stars and performances, it really stands out as bad. Some have suggested that it’s just the character’s serenity that makes the performance seem wooden, but here Anglim had perfect opportunity to display some cracks in Bareil’s veneer—to, at the very least, show some emotion. But he doesn’t. Aside from looking mildly surprised in his visions (and, by the way, even the man’s nightmarish visions come across as strangely boring), there’s just nothing there. Nana Visitor deserves an awkward for acting her socks off and managing to convince us that she’s in love, when the co-star in question is simply giving nothing back.
Fortunately, I think the writers have actually realised that by this point, and interestingly, for an episode about Bareil, his appearances are kept to a minimum and he isn’t given a huge amount of dialogue. Which is a great decision, because this is really Kira’s episode, and Nana is wonderful throughout. I loved her team-up with Odo, because those are two actors that do work beautifully together, and who bring their A-game to every scene. Their visit to Quark to take advantage of his more dubious skills is also a highlight of the episode.
The revelation that Bareil is covering up for Kai Opaka is a wonderful twist. It was, as I said, an impossible choice she made—she couldn’t have lived with herself if she’d let over a thousand people die, even if that meant the death of her own son. I’m not entirely sure why Bareil and Prylar Bek felt the need to cover this up at the cost of Bek’s life and Bareil’s future, because surely anyone would have acknowledged that Opaka made the best out of two terrible choices? In this case, it can hardly be deemed an act of “collaboration” when it was done to save so many lives?
Anyway, this leads to one of the season’s biggest shocks: the election of Winn as Kai (to me, It’s even more painful seeing this following the election of a certain ex-President a few years ago, and that of a current Prime Minister in Britain.) It’s nightmarish stuff to be sure, but it also sows the seeds for so many brilliant future storylines and cements Winn as one of my favourite TV villains of all time. Louise Fletcher seems like a genuinely wonderful person (if you haven’t seen it, go watch her
Oscar acceptance speech and try not to get teary-eyed!), but, man, she excelled playing downright hateful characters.
Finally, I know I’ve been tough on Anglim’s performances on the show. I haven’t seen him in anything else, but I assume he’s a capable actor whose stylistic choice simply didn’t work here. But, having seen his shirtless scenes I no longer question what Kira sees him—the guy’s got a surprisingly hot bod for a Vedek!
Rating: 8
