LogFAQs > #973031043

Episode 14: Progress

Another idiot.

Sisko cooly shuts down Kira's Cardassian comparison and with good reason. Like his patience with Kira and the not so subtle hint to Bashir. Pretends to be genuinely interested in Mullibok's ramblings and in doing so, finally shuts the daft bastard up. Saying that Kira's on the other side now is absolutely wrong. A rebuilding government is not the same as a repressive one. Equally, leading people is not necessarily the same as bullying them or worse.

Odo almost believes Quark for a split second.

Bashir seems quite annoyed this episode. Maybe he'd already heard about Mullibok's nonsense and was hoping to avoid him.

Dax keeps getting hit on and still doesn't fully mind the attention.

Jake loses his patience and declares victory. Perhaps a bit more business savvy than his partner.

O'Brien doesn't really want to suffer through Nog's line of questioning, he just wants to get on with a job that shouldn't need doing.

Quark once again verbally slaps his brother. Has the resigned patience of an older sibling. Grumbles at his nephew, too, but still seems like a better guardian than his actual father. Doesn't take him long to figure out Nog's business identity.

Kira sarcastically tries to reassure a bureaucrat. Can't comprehend what Dax sees in Morn. Has an exasperated tolerance for the stubbornness and sexism, until she cottons on and acts slightly playful about it. Annoyed, then amused by Mullibok's tall tales. I like that shes a passionate lass, but briefly taking Mullibok's side on this issue is a bridge too far for me. Has the decency to be reluctant and as kind as possible when relocating the farmers. Developing a guilt complex and adopting the farmer's life is utterly ridiculous. I may not like the guy, but wrecking his life's work is just dark and makes her seem like such a dreadful person. Especially since she beamed him up against his will anyway.

Nog is an obvious eavesdropper. Senses a business opportunity. Seems to have missed the obvious first step of selling anything. Just as obvious with trying to pry information out of O'Brien. Not one for deferred gratification.

Mullibok initially manages to be far more pleasant than the usual suicidal dope in this situation. Tries to makes leaving him easier, but doesn't get very far. Tries a fun variety of techniques to be as annoying as possible. Comparing his situation to resisting the occupation is a false equivalence, as living on Bajor now is unlikely to be even a fraction as shit as Cardassian rule was. I want to believe his sudden snarling anger when his people get manhandled is a PTSD attack, but its a bit too jarring to the point that it feels less like his inner depths and more like an entirely separate character. That could be the point, but i dont like it. At about the halfway mark, my goodwill ran out and he became just another stupid homesteader. Speaking for Kira to Sisko has some rather sickening abusive undertones to it. Something quite entitled about the way he treats his "nurse".

Everything Bajor continues to be beautifully bathed in lush colours. The sequence of Mullibok getting shot is hilariously melodramatic and contrived. Jake and Nog's story has the structure of a chain of deals video game sidequest. Finishing the kiln is meant to be dramatic, but the attendent context just makes it pathetic. Its a missed opportunity to not have the land Jake and Nog acquired be given to Mullibok.

Eminent domain is a very thorny issue, to say the least, and in most circumstances, I'd be the first to side with the people who are getting unfairly displaced. The problem, then, of doing this kind of metaphor for it, is that it never seemed like we were dealing with some sort of semi useless vanity project, but an actually vital piece of infrastructure that can further help Bajor on its way to being an independently livable world. Set this story in modern times and, while he'd still be annoying, Mullibok would probably be in the right, although a proper equivalent might involve, say, arguments over whether building a well in an already claimed location is the right thing to do, if it might save a settlement from dying of dehydration. Here, though, with all the backstory and lore already set up, he genuinely seems like a selfish git who doesn't care that a substantial portion of his home world might be living in relative squalor and perhaps facing outright death (this is still a barely functional planet, thanks to the Cardassians making a mess, right?) due to his stubbornness. An additional significant problem facing those who are displaced is whether they will actually receive a halfway decent new home in exchange. We simply haven't seen enough of the Bajoran government to know if they can appropriately stand in for real world examples that don't remotely care.

The moral dilemma isn't really the key issue here, though. It's about Kira and I frankly believe they take her perfectly understandable sympathies for underdogs to the point of caricature. Battle Lines had a perfectly reasonable conflict for Kira, involving addiction and guilt in regards to violence. This doesn't, since it seems to suggest that attempting to rebuild a dying planet might somehow be a betrayal of being an underdog against the awful conquerors who nearly killed it to begin with, instead of the natural next step of that plan. I understand the point. She needs to accept that she's no longer fighting the government, she is the government and there is a genuinely good story there, which can touch on her anxieties about it, but the story as presented here is a bit too shallow a look at that potential conflict and has Kira come across rather badly in some cases, particularly when she trashes the place. There's something uncomfortably ambiguous about how it all ends, too, since Kira may be being presented as a sort of reluctant, but necessary fascist, which is concerning in the same way Riker maybe being a rapist in that Rashomon themed episode is concerning. No complaints about Jake and Nog, though, this is the best they've been.

For some reason, I'm not fully happy with the above paragraph, but I've spend enough time on this.

The kids do fine, but the A plot is reaching beyond its grasp a fair bit, in both production and themes.

If Wishes Were Horses, I'd dream of the next episode at a steady trot.