The Dominion War notwithstanding, if Deep Space Nine had an overall story it was the story of Benjamin Sisko as the Emissary of the Prophets. There's a lot of discussion of where the writers went with that arc in Seasons 6 and 7, but I thought it might be interesting to see what people think of it as a whole.
For me, it was an interesting idea and it asked a lot of questions about religion, allegiances and Sisko's relationship to Bajor. I appreciated the way Sisko's attitude to the role evolved through episodes like Destiny, Accession and Rapture, particularly the latter, which is a personal favourite of mine. I think that the Emissary stuff really peaked in Season 5 (as did DS9 in my opinion) - it put Sisko in the interesting position of having to go against his original mission and come into conflict with Starfleet, and the way it tied in with the build-up the the Dominion War was effective. Even more, it gave us a sense of what being the Emissary might really mean, since it had never truly been explained.
In the last two seasons I think it was more of a mixed bag. Sisko's attachment to Bajor and decision to settle down there was excellent character growth, but I'm not a big fan of the Pah Wraiths and the final showdown with Dukat. The Reckoning was probably the pivotal episode - suddenly we discover that there's going to be some Ultimate Showdown between the Prophets and Pah Wraiths and it plays out in a rather silly fashion before Winn apparently postpones it. All this was a bit too sudden for me, and to be honest, a bit too silly. This stuff dragged down the Season 6 finale as well, although I do think Image in the Sand/Shadows and Symbols was pretty impressive. Ultimately, finding out that Sisko's job as the Emissary was to stop Dukat releasing the Pah Wraiths (by which standard I guess Chief O'Brien was also the Emissary...) didn't really satisfy me. I wish being the Emissary had ultimately meant more than being the Prophets' champion in a final smackdown - Deep Space Nine was a really thought-provoking show at its best, but this ending seemed rather formulaic to me.
I agree with you on almost all of it - I just think you're being way too lenient on the season 6/7 development of the arc. The Emissary arc started great - in the pilot - but by the end it was a real mess. Since I've already written a lot about the problems withthe Pah-wraiths and "Space Jesus" Sisko's arranged birth, I'll just link to one of my previous rants...
http://trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=3363038&postcount=109
In the last two seasons I think it was more of a mixed bag. Sisko's attachment to Bajor and decision to settle down there was excellent character growth, but I'm not a big fan of the Pah Wraiths and the final showdown with Dukat. The Reckoning was probably the pivotal episode - suddenly we discover that there's going to be some Ultimate Showdown between the Prophets and Pah Wraiths and it plays out in a rather silly fashion before Winn apparently postpones it. All this was a bit too sudden for me, and to be honest, a bit too silly. This stuff dragged down the Season 6 finale as well, although I do think Image in the Sand/Shadows and Symbols was pretty impressive. Ultimately, finding out that Sisko's job as the Emissary was to stop Dukat releasing the Pah Wraiths (by which standard I guess Chief O'Brien was also the Emissary...) didn't really satisfy me. I wish being the Emissary had ultimately meant more than being the Prophets' champion in a final smackdown - Deep Space Nine was a really thought-provoking show at its best, but this ending seemed rather formulaic to me.
I'll have to disagree with those points. I loved what they did with Sisko and the Prophets stoyline in Seasons Six and Seven. They definitely brought in more fantasy, not sci-fi, stories and themes. While a lot of people didn't like that aspect, I loved it. IMO, the fantasy elements of the Emissary Arc and the sci-fi elements of the Dominion War Arc blended together and played off each other perfectly.
I also loved the addition of the Pah-Wraiths. Up until their introduction, DS9 had celebrated religion, something Star Trek has always been VERY reluctant to do. Very often the franchise is downright hostile to religion. However, if you're going to show all the good aspects of a religious lifestyle, you should also show how religion can be twisted into something wrong, or evil. The Cult of the Pah-Wraiths did this perfectly. Having Dukat then act as a sort of Emissary of the Pah-Wraiths wasn't just a set-up for the epic smackdown of good vs. evil (that aspect was there however, and it was awesome). It was a way to show all the bad aspects of religion while simultaneously showing its good aspects.
I don't think so. DS9 had already very much shown the negative aspects of religion, and in a much better way - both with the Bajoran religion and Kai Winn, and with the Dominion and the Vorta and Jem 'Hadar worship of the Founders.
Besides, trying to show negative aspects of religion through a
cult, a fringe group with a typical evil charismatic cult leader, is much less interesting than showing how a legitimate mainstream religion can have dangerous and bad aspects as well as good ones. DS9 did the latter well with Kai Winn in "In the Hands of the Prophets" and other episodes back in the days when she was not serving the Pah-wraiths. I have to say, if one can only show negative aspects of religion through cults, which most people already despise and regard as dangerous... well, that just feels lame, unnecessary, and a cop-out. Maybe it feels even more like that to me, because of the circumstances in my country. For the last 20 years, and especially during the last decade, the dominant Church has been having or trying to have a strong influence on political and social life - too much influence, I'd say - and it has shown itself much more often in negative light than in positive, with far too much nationalism, warmongering, homophobia, sexism, etc. while even the moderate voices were too weak, and far too few positive examples. So when I watched Kai Winn in "In the Hands of the Prophets", it felt very topical and real, and she reminded me of some real life figures of high church dignitaries who seem more like politicians - arrogant, aggressive, conservative, very right-wing politicians. But, at the same time, if you believed mainstream newspapers, magazines and TV, especially a few years ago, it was the cults (or "sects" as they usually call them here) that are this big, incredible danger to the society. We had all sorts of articles and programmes about the danger of the "sects", which are supposed to be a danger on par with drugs for the young people in the country - that despite the fact that these "sects" are so few and so small that you'd hardly know they existed, and most of them are actually completely harmless groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, while those infamous satanistic cults or whatever are so elusive that I doubt they even exist... That's why I was very unimpressed with those stories about the dangers of religious "sects" - since the accepted, mainstream church was the one that really seemed powerful and way too influential, and a lot more likely to be the real danger. So... you can see why I am even less inclined than most people to be impressed by attempts to show the negative aspects of religion... through a cult.
As for the Prophets themselves - I'd also argue that they were never shown as being truly 'good', if you stop and think about it - they were never really shown as the 'benevolent gods', saving the people of Bajor and eliminating all hardships, sorrow, etc. They let the Cardassians occupy Bajor for 60 years; they stopped one Dominion fleet, when they could have stopped all Dominion forces from entering Bajoran space; they let Winn be a pawn of the Pah-Wraith, when they could have saved her or stopped her; they possessed Sarah Sisko, to ensure that their Emissary was born. These are mysterious alien beings, working on their own mysterious agenda. And I don't think they were ever shown as anything other than that. Don't confuse learning more about these mysterious Prophets with their conception changing, IMO the writers wrote them consistantly - it was just that we learned more about them in later seasons!
Exactly! But that's another reason why the Prophets/Pah-wraiths duality doesn't work. It could have worked if they had both been shown as just two warring factions of aliens, neither of which were exactly good or evil. I don't like black-and-white dualities, but in this case, it's not even that... it's gray and black duality. Since the Prophets are pretty much manipulative assholes, what do we do to make them look better? Why, let's make their opponents really, really eeeeeevil! Ridiculously, cartoonishly, motivelessly evil. Let's say that they want to... hm, what is bad enough? They want to end all life! Why? Eh, who cares.
As for Dukat, his storyarc in late season 6/season 7 simply didn't make any sense. The writers should have decided - either he was insane, or he was in possession of his senses and responsible for his actions. You can't have it both ways! Mad ramblings of an insane man can't be seriously taken as proofs of his "pure evil" nature or genocidal intent. But he's completely insane one moment, then the next he seems lucid enough to scheme and manipulate Winn, but still not sane enough for any of his motives to make any sense... What kind of characterization is that? Ah, yes - the one driven by plot.
If they wanted to associate Dukat with the Pah-wraiths, it would have been a lot more convincing if he was being sane, but his old arrogant self, and believed that he could use the Pah-wraiths for his own agenda and end up on top, just like he did with Dominion (and of course, was horribly wrong). Dukat as a true believer in the Pah-wraiths felt very out of character.
