Star Trek: In the Hands of the Prophets

Episode: "In the Hands of the Prophets"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 1, Episode 20

Original Air Date: June 20, 1993

via Memory Beta

Vedek Winn, a prominet Bajoran religious leader, arrives on the station to stir up trouble.  Her target is Keiko O'Brien's school for the teacher's refusal to teach religious doctrine.  The school is even bombed during Winn's visit, though fortunately no one is hurt.  Winn also expresses her distress over Commander Sisko's reluctance to fully embrace the role of Emissary.  On top of it all, there's an assassination attempt on Vedek Bareil, a more progressive religious leader.  Is Vedek Winn behind all of these terrorist attacks?

The benefit of hanging around Bajor for a while is we get to see the society's nuances.  There is more to the culture than resistance to the Cardassians.  There is internal political power struggle on Bajor itself and it ain't all pretty.  This time, the historical model for the narrative is 15th- and 16th-century Catholicism, though there is no shortage of examples of zealotry gone too far at any point in human history.

There's no cliff-hanger at the end, which had become the template for Star Trek season finales.  However, there are plenty of unanswered questions to build on in future seasons.

Thoughts on Season One

General Impressions

Deep Space Nine is off to a strong start - considerably stronger, in fact, than NextGen's first season.  The characters are established and overall, the writing is solid.  The last two episodes, in particular, stake out the moral landscape for the series moving forward.  While one could argue that all of the creative minds involved benefited from the TNG experience thus a better beginning was inevitable, things don't always work out that way, as we shall see when we get to Voyager.

Favorite Episode: "Duet"

DS9 goes from good to great with "Duet."  Kira confronts a Cardassian who was at a Bajoran labor camp.  She must determine whether he is a blameless file clerk or the camp's war criminal commander.  Prejudices are confronted.  Most importantly, satisfying resolution is lacking, new narrative ground for the Star Trek brand.  We don't get to run away this time.  We're going to have to sit with Bajor's mess for a while.

Least Favorite Episode: "The Storyteller"

Even the weaker DS9 episodes aren't so bad compared to the worst of TNG or TOS.  And often, there is a redeeming element.  "The Storyteller" is eye-roll-level hokey yet it launches the Miles-Julian bromance.

Favorite Recurring Character: Keiko O'Brien

via Memory Alpha

The quality of the bench players is a major asset for DS9.  Already in the first season, Keiko gets far more development than she ever got on NextGen.  In time, other recurring characters will become a lot more interesting - Gul Ducat, Rom, Nog, Vedek Winn and, of course, Garak.  But in the early going, Keiko gets the nod in this category.

Favorite Blast from the Past: Miles O'Brien

via Memory Alpha

If any character was intended to bridge the new series with the old, it was Miles O'Brien.  The character's TNG resume is nothing to sneeze at: 52 appearances including at least one in each season.  He gets a particularly good story in Season 4's "The Wounded."  But in DS9, Miles attains principal character status.

Favorite Guest Actor, One-Shot: Andrew Robinson

Get used to seeing Garak in these season wrap-ups.  The enigmatic Cardassian clothier is DS9's gem, every story improving the instant he appears.  Robinson's character only got one episode in the first season: "Past Prologue."  True to form, he made it count.

Onward

The best is yet to come.