A Time to Serialize...

Deep Space Nine noticeably deviated off of its usual format (and its usual base of operations) during the multi-story arc that opened season six, which went a long way to keep audience interest high and boost the importance of many of the recurring guest characters who populated the show for the long-term. The story ideas being put forward seemed to need that extra breathing room, and season six soon blossomed into a fairly high-quality serialized drama, with only the occasional odd stumbling block. However, I find I'm less impressed with these six episodes this time around than I have been on previous occasions. To some degree, the format changes have lost their shock value. More fundamentally though, the search for any kind of uplifting Trekkian philosophy anywhere in here is coming up a bit short, and there doesn't seem to be enough focus anywhere for me to be able to say what any of these stories are really about, in the sense that Gene Roddenberry once famously impressed upon Michael Piller. At least, not if it's going to be something more inspiring than "here's how soldiers, oppressors, and lackeys deal with war", which is so tired and overused on DS9 that it no longer registers.

Well, pretending for the moment that this show doesn't need to try to live up to that gold standard, it's still got everything it needs to succeed as a darned impressive and polished adventure yarn... and yet nearly every episode we have in this six-part arc also seems to go out of its way to unnecessarily add some kind of downer, or tragedy, or misdirection of drive towards something unproductive and distasteful. It's almost as if there was some directive to try to squeeze lower emotions out of the audience once per week, or perhaps that the writers need to sacrifice a character now and then to appease their gods, and even let that slip into the title. I know I did think more highly of these first six episodes in the past. Hmmmph. Your mileage may vary, depending on what you want most from your Star Trek.

Yes, there is a darned engrossing and highly entertaining adventure here in the bulk of this saga, if one overlooks a few unfortunate (and unnecessary) emotional moments, though this isn't really a greatly enlightening tale as Star Trek has often aspired to provide in the past.

Sacrifice of Angels

For the moment, our attention is here in this finale for season six's opening six-part story. (Or seven-part story if you add last year's cliffhanger, which you really should do. Or eight-part story if you add the oh-so-satisfying relief episode with Worf & Dax's wedding.) In what becomes chapter 6 of "Sacrifice of Angels" on the DVD box set - the turning point with the Defiant in the wormhole - we get the next bit in the arc about Sisko and the Prophets being "of Bajor", which had started in "Accession" and been picked up again in "Rapture".

The gist of it is all about who is interfering and who is not. For starters, Sisko has taken the Federation's fight with the Dominion right into the wormhole where he intends to use it as the next battleground. If the inside of the wormhole isn't the territory and jurisdiction of the Prophet Aliens, I don't know what is, so they have every right to have their say and exert their influence. This is absolutely not a "deus-ex-machina" solution to the opening serial as some have commented, but rather I think some screen-time and attention is finally being paid to one of the most key parties of the entire DS9 saga. Sisko seems bizarrely and inappropriately egotistical with his remarks here, as if he should be allowed to act like a bull in a chinashop wherever he goes, and worries most about how the Prophets' actions affect him. I don't know how Sisko could honestly expect the Prophet Aliens NOT to pause everything to have a few words at the very least. His dialogue makes it seem as though the writers intended the Prophets to say they have every right to meddle in Sisko's life, the affairs of Bajor, and the rest of the galaxy.... which dilutes the better point they could be making.

When you consider that, back in the pilot episode "Emissary", the Prophets were upset just to have any one ship pass through their realm, a whole armada should definitely be troubling. An armada exchanging fire with an opposing force inside the wormhole is obviously not going to be tolerated in any fashion. The initial agreement Sisko made with them in "Emissary" is now up for renegotiation, as it should be. Besides, the Prophets don't need to grant the Dominion free passage through the wormhole, particularly if these Prophets are of Bajor. This is an interesting turn of events, to see the Prophet Aliens becoming involved as they probably should have some time ago.

Should there be any Prime Directive considerations anymore in the Federation's handling of Bajoran affairs? Bajor practically got accepted as a Federation member in last season's "Rapture", and we only held off on making it official to play politics in front of the Dominion.

Add that to all the talk of Sisko and the Prophets being of Bajor, and I don't think it matters anymore. Let them all interact and trade and fight alongside each other as much as they want. And include the Prophet Aliens in all that as well.

The biggest question mark here is what the Prophets mean when they say they will exact a penance from Sisko. Firstly, "exacting a penance" is such a low-level, primitive concept that it should raise questions about how high a spiritual pedestal anyone should want to place the Prophets upon... Do the Prophets actually use these words, or are we seeing Sisko's impressions of what they mean, everything filtered through his angry state of mind at this moment? More importantly, is the penance deemed necessary because of what Sisko asks of them, or because of his boorish, egotistical attitude in the way he conducts himself and accuses them of personal interference in this episode? Perhaps we are better off just treating the Prophets as aliens who are both flawed and have VERY different perspectives and ways of communicating. But also... Is the statement about exacting a penance a lead-up for season seven's big finale? Or is it about an event much sooner? We shall see....