Rewatcher’s note: There will be no rewatch on Friday the 10th of October because your humble rewatcher will be at New York Comic-Con (find him at Booth #1157!). We’ll be back on Tuesday the 14th with “Inquisition.”
“Wrongs Darker than Death or Night”
Written by Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler
Directed by Jonathan West
Season 6, Episode 17
Production episode 40510-541
Original air date: March 28, 1998
Stardate: unknown
Station log: Kira has ordered flowers for herself: Bajoran lilacs. Today would’ve been her mother Kira Meru’s 60th birthday, and Kira’s father Taban always said lilacs were her favorite. Kira didn’t know Meru, as she died when Kira was three, but Taban always said she was the bravest woman Taban had ever known.
That night, Kira receives a comuniqué from Dukat, who says that Sisko helped Dukat achieve clarity, to see the truth of his life. He reveals that he knew Meru, that they were in fact lovers until the day she died, that her father lied about her dying at the Singha Refugee Camp because he couldn’t bear the notion that she left him for Dukat. Kira is convinced that it’s a lie, but Dukat knows a lot about her. So she investigates, searching Meru’s file in the Singha records, and is also generally snappish and irritable. Finally, she goes to Sisko, who is sure that Dukat was lying to get under Kira’s skin, but Kira needs to know for sure. She wants to use the Orb of Time to find out for sure, and she needs Sisko’s blessing as the Emissary, which he cautiously and reluctantly grants.
Kira goes to Bajor, opens the Orb, and then finds herself in the Singha Refugee Center on Bajor with a bunch of others—including Taban, Meru, little Nerys, and her two brothers, Reon and Pohl. Two bullies try to take the soup that Meru stood on line for, but Kira takes care of them in about half a second. She happily accepts the Kira family’s gratitude, and gets to introduce herself to her three-year-old self as Luma Rahl, shaking her own hand and everything.
A collaborator named Basso enters the cave with a bunch of Cardassian soldiers. He’s there to conscript comfort women for the new ore-processing station in orbit (Terok Nor), which is almost finished. The families in question receive extra rations in exchange. Basso takes both Meru and “Luma” to Terok Nor, with Meru’s last words to her husband that she loves him and to never let their children forget her. The women are all assigned quarters, told they can eat all they want—and the amount of food is overwhelming to Meru. She just wishes that Taban and the children were there.
Kira comforts her as best she can, hoping to contact a resistance cell on the station. She also sees the scar on her cheek that she covers with her hair—exactly where Dukat said it was when he contacted her.
The next day, they’re all dressed up and dolled up, and Basso informs them of their new purpose: to provide comfort and care to the Cardassian officers stationed on Terok Nor. He’s interrupted in mid-snide by Dukat. The prefect tries to assure the women that he will show them that Cardassians can be better than most Bajorans believe them to be. Meru speaks out of turn, asking about their families. Basso tries to suck up by yelling at her, but Dukat finds her interesting. When he sees her scar, Basso again tries to suck up by saying he’ll get rid of her, and he again fails when Dukat tells him instead to get a dermal regenerator, enabling him to eliminate the scar.
Basso says they’ve all passed their first test, and Kira is revolted to see that Meru was impressed by Dukat. The next test is a party, where the comfort women have to do whatever the Cardassians want. A legate goes for Kira, who’s apparently turned on by hearing how much Bajorans hate Cardassians, which is handy, as Kira’s more than happy to tell him. Another Cardassian has taken Meru into a corner and is pawing all over her. Dukat, livid, yanks the Cardassian away from her and tells Basso to escort her to her quarters and to see that her privacy is maintained.
The legate predicts Dukat’s dialogue to Meru, assuring Kira that he’s seen this little melodrama play out before. But since Meru has caught Dukat’s eye, it means she’s off limits to everyone else.
After sending the drunken legate back to his quarters, Kira returns home to find, not Meru, but Basso and two Cardassians carrying her stuff. She’s moving up in the world, moving in with Dukat. When Kira demands to see Meru, Basso refuses, and when Kira insists by punching the Cardassians, she gets tossed into the labor area.
Kira spends the next several weeks working in ore processing, getting it ready for when the station is fully operational. A soup server, Halb, informs Kira that Meru took a vacation with Dukat. He’s also trying to recruit her for the resistance—or at the very least get a map from her of the Cardassian side of the station. His pleading is interrupted by Basso, who brings her to Dukat’s quarters, where Meru is waiting along with Dukat. She assures “Luma” that Dukat not only hasn’t hurt her, but has been very kind to her. He even brought her Bajoran lilacs. Meru has asked Dukat to allow Kira to be her companion.
Kira, however, is disgusted. Meru insists that she’s doing it for her family, but Kira doesn’t see it that way. She’s a collaborator, and Kira won’t stand for being anywhere near it. She then goes to Halb and offers to plant an explosive for him in Dukat’s quarters, expressing no regret at the possibility that Meru will also be killed. She tells Basso that she wants to apologize to Meru, and she does so, being given quarters near Dukat’s and Meru’s. She surreptitiously plants the bomb.
Basso gives Dukat a communiqué, which he gives to Meru. It’s Taban, who expresses gratitude to her, as they’re living far better now than they were in Singha. He’s told the children that she’s still back there at the refugee camp, but Reon and Pohl are happy and “little Nerys” has gained five pounds. Kira is devastated, but she’s already set the explosive. So she warns Meru and Dukat both, getting them out of their quarters. “Luma” is seemingly killed in the explosion—but in fact Kira returns to the present.
She talks to Sisko about how she had always thought of her mother as a hero of the resistance, that she died for their people, and that collaborators were all horrible people. Sisko reminds her that she did what she did to save her family, but Kira says that doesn’t make it right. She checked the records, and found that she died seven years after becoming Dukat’s comfort woman.
Sisko asks why she saved Meru if she hated her so much, and Kira says she thought about it—but she was still her mother.
The Sisko is of Bajor: Sisko is reluctant to give Kira permission to use the Orb, at least in part because he’s pissed that Kira didn’t report Dukat’s communiqué initially, but she pleads to him, even calling him “Emissary” (which she almost never does to his face), and he gives in.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira goes back in time to become a woman named Luma who befriends Meru. There’s no indication as to whether there’s any record of Luma or not, although she’s the type of person whose existence could easily have never been recorded anywhere.
The slug in your belly: Dax tries to convince Worf to have another party in their quarters. She promises only 50-60 people, but Worf sees through that, knowing there will be 200 or so people jammed into their cabin. Dax’s promise that no one will smile does not work to convince him to accede, though he almost gives in until she suggests a dress-as-your-favorite-Klingon theme.
Preservation of mass and energy is for wimps: Odo sees that Kira is upset and offers a friendly ear to bend, but Kira doesn’t want to talk about it. Odo then suggests that, if talking about it won’t help, that she should instead do something about it, which is what leads her to request Sisko’s help in gaining access to the Orb of Time.
For Cardassia! The legate who hits on Kira makes it clear that Dukat makes a habit of staging incidents to make himself more appealing to Bajoran women he finds attractive. It’s also been established that he likes spirited Bajoran women (Tora Naprem, for example, plus of course Kira herself). Indeed, one assumes that he pulled the same act on Tora.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: Male Cardassian officers regularly had their way with Bajoran comfort women. It’s never made clear whether or not male Bajorans were playthings of female Cardassian officers.
What happens on the holosuite, stays on the holosuite: O’Brien is trying to convince Bashir that the Battle of the Alamo would make a great holosuite program. Bashir is skeptical, to say the least. (We’ll find out in subsequent episodes that he’ll give in, and O’Brien and Bashir will replay the Alamo on the holosuite many times in the future.)
Keep your ears open: “You Bajoran women are so bony.”
“That’s because you Cardassians eat all our food.”
“I could have you executed for that remark.”
“And that’s why we hate you all so much.”
The legate and Kira engaging in sexy banter (from his POV) and disgust (from hers).
Welcome aboard: Marc Alaimo is back as Dukat, and Thomas Kopache again appears, this time with a silly wig, as Taban (following “Ties of Blood and Water,” which means he probably wins the award for most words in the titles of episodes he guest-starred in).
Tim deZarn plays Halb, having also been on TNG’s “Starship Mine,” and Voyager’s “Initiations” and “Repentance” (as two different characters). Wayne Grace’s appearance here as the legate is bookended by two Klingons, Torak on TNG’s “Aquiel” and Krell on Enterprise’s “Divergence.” David Bowe skeeves it up nicely as Basso.
And our Robert Knepper moment is Leslie Hope as Meru. I had totally forgotten that Teri Bauer played Kira’s Mom…
Trivial matters: This episode contradicts two previous bits of Terok Nor timelines. It has Terok Nor constructed in 2346, as opposed to Odo’s assertion in “Babel” that it was built in 2351. The station isn’t fully operational, so it’s possible that Odo was referring to when the station was completely up and running. In addition, Dukat said in “Waltz” that he was made prefect after the occupation had been going on for forty years, but 2346 is only twenty years after the occupation started.
The title of the episode comes from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound.” The Orb of Time was previously used in “Trials and Tribble-ations.”
Dukat’s comment about how Sisko opened his eyes to the truth of his life refers to what happened in “Waltz.” It’s likely that the assassination attempt one month into his tenure that he told Sisko about in that episode is Kira’s abortive bombing of his quarters here.
It was established in “Shadowplay” that Kira has two brothers, but this is the first time they’re named.
The original intent for this episode was to have a Cardassian equivalent of Josef Mengele who performed experiments on Bajorans. While the notion never came together on DS9, it was the basis for the Voyager episode “Nothing Human,” which established Crell Mosett as the Cardassian Mengele.
The Terok Nor novels Night of the Wolves and Dawn of the Eagles by S.D. Perry & Britta Dennison continue Dukat and Meru’s storyline, showing how their relationship developed and then soured over time, particularly once Dukat took on Tora Naprem as a mistress (as established in “Indiscretion”). In an ironic twist, she’s established in the former novel as dying while in the care of Crell Mosett. Dukat continues to be loyal to Meru after her death by looking out for her family, including keeping Kira from being terminated by the Obisidian Order and replaced with Iliana Ghemor (from “Second Skin”), as established in Fearful Symmetry by Olivia Woods.
Walk with the Prophets: “I love you, Meru—I’ll always love you.” The best episodes that have shown the Cardassian occupation of Bajor have shown that it’s one big muddy mess of gray. There’s plenty of bad, but not a lot of good, and it just boiled down to what you were willing to do to keep yourself as clean as possible.
For Kira it was simple: fight the Cardassians by any means necessary. For Meru it was a more complicated choice: Dukat expressed an interest in her, and her becoming Dukat’s mistress made it possible for her family to live better lives. Ironically, the very thing that allowed Kira to make the choice to become part of Shakaar’s resistance cell was the very thing about her mother that absolutely disgusts her here.
And that’s why this episode is so wonderful. At first, Kira is solely concerned with knowing more about her mother and what happened to her. She does everything she can to avoid polluting the timelines, as Sisko requested of her. After all, she could very easily give Halb detailed diagrams of the entire station, since she’s been serving on it for the better part of six years, but she doesn’t, nor does she accept his inveigling to join the resistance—
—until she sees her mother, the woman she admired, the woman her father described as the bravest woman she ever met, apologizing for Dukat.
That’s the one thing Kira can’t forgive. She’s seen firsthand, both as a citizen of Bajor during the occupation and as the first officer of Deep Space 9, just what a shitheel Dukat is. So the notion of her mother not only being his mistress, but actually enjoying it is far more than she can bear. It actually leads to her contemplating murdering her own mother, because Meru is the worst thing Kira can imagine: a collaborator. In this very episode we get the skeeviest of collaborators in Basso, who’s a scum-sucking weasel of the highest order, but we’ve been down this road with Kira before. In “The Collaborator” we saw the opprobrium levelled at Kubus Oak for being part of the puppet government, and we saw the lengths Bareil would go to in order to prevent anyone from viewing Opaka as a collaborator. In “Rocks and Shoals” we saw Kira’s horror to learn that she had become a collaborator, so for her mother to be one also? That’s something she will not put up with.
At least not until she remembers exactly who it is. Until she had the Orb experience, she probably never even knew what her mother looked like. Then it’s all about making sure she’s okay, about finding out what happened to her that is so obviously not what her father told her.
Then, just at the moment of truth, she sees the message from Taban. He knows damn well what’s happening, and is incredibly grateful to Meru and impressed with her, and when Kira sees that, and sees Meru break down crying in gratitude that her husband understands and shows that she still loves him—and then Kira realizes that she can’t kill her. She even saves Dukat, probably belatedly remembering Sisko’s cautions about altering the timelines—plus, if Meru survives an explosion and Dukat doesn’t, none of the Kira family’s life will be worth a plugged nickel.
Best of all is the ending, though, which is not the unconvincing hearts-and-Bajoran-lilacs happy ending that Trek has conditioned us to expect between main characters and their estranged parent figures (cf. “The Icarus Factor,” “The Alternate,” “Sons and Daughters”). Instead, Kira still thinks ill of her mother, finds what she did to be repugnant, for all that her father supported, for all that it kept her alive and well fed.
The episode has its problems, goodness knows. The use of the Orb of Time is problematic to say the least, as Sisko using his pull as Emissary to let Kira use it for dubious personal reasons is specious enough, but the Orb also doesn’t act the same way that it did in “Trials and Tribble-ations.” Somehow, Kira shows up in the past wearing appropriate clothing and with a different hairstyle, which didn’t happen to anyone who used it in the previous episode. In general, the Orb is the hoariest and lamest of plot devices. It’s not as bad as the weird-ass vision Odo experienced in “Things Past,” but it once again showed that “Necessary Evil” had the right idea in keeping it simple and just doing flashbacks. Of course, this episode wouldn’t have worked that way, as Kira needed to see for herself that Meru was Dukat’s mistress, but still the contrivance to get Kira to the past was just that: a contrivance, and it reduces the episode’s effectiveness somewhat.
Warp factor rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be at New York Comic-Con this weekend, spending most of his time in booth 1157 (in the small press area) alongside Megan Rothrock, author of The LEGO Adventure Book series. Keith will have several books for sale, including Star Trek: The Klingon Art of War, Farscape: The War for the Uncharted Territories, and his latest, Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution. He’ll also be on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer panel Friday at 5pm in 1A18 alongside Amber Benson, Thomas Sniegoski, Carol Goodman, Michelle Knudsen, Hillary Monahan, and May Chen; the panelists will be doing an autographing following the panel at Table 19 from 6-7pm.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I always thought Kira wasn’t really in the past, she was just experiencing it. So much so that I remember being confused about her desire to kill Dukat since she had to know it couldn’t affect anything real . . .
@1
Thats what i thought.
I never really thought that Meru liked Dukat so much as making the best out of a bad situation.
I mean if youre forced to sleep with the enemy, id rather have to do it with one cardassian instead of all the rest.
Meru is absolutely fascinating. She is willing to go through the ultimate in degradation – physical, emotional, social, you name it – to save her family. Remember, if she failed to please the Cardassians, her family would be killed. Catching Dukat’s eye made things all the worse – she couldn’t deaden herself to get through it, but had to be engaged and involved with him. At no point could she ever be sure she was totally alone and free to unwind. That continual fear for self and for family – that’s an unending agony.
Just all around an impressive woman.
I’m curious – didn’t anybody else notice that the Kiras were getting extra food and stuff? Are was suggesting that Taban managed to hide the truth of what happened to his wife for all those years? I mean, I doubt that a single Bajoran father would have otherwise received extra rations for his starving children. Especially enough for a child to gain 5 pounds.
I know it has to be done for the sake of drama and the basis of this episode, but it’s the biggest coincidence in the universe that Kira’s very own mother happened to be the mistress of Dukat, one of the main adversaries in this series. It would have been more plausible if they made it some other Cardassian but of course Dukat is a character we all love to hate so why not! And it makes it even more skeevy that Dukat used Kira’s mother as his mistress and always had a thing for (adult) Kira too! Eeeeew! Great and powerful episode though.
There is absolutely nothing in the episode to indicate that Kira isn’t “really” in the past. Sisko wouldn’t caution her about mucking with the timelines if that was the case, and the previous use of the Orb of Time in “Trials and Tribble-ations” made it clear that the Orb of Time really-o-truly-o sends you into the past. And Kira actually does stuff in the past, including an assassination attempt that Dukat previously alluded to in “Waltz.”
So in fact there’s no evidence to support the notion that Kira isn’t really in the past.
As for the coincidence of Dukat also being a mistress to Meru, it actually explains a bunch of things, like why Dukat has a thing for Kira in particular, and also why her notation in Dukat’s file was so minimal when she was part of a successful resistance cell that, amont other things, liberated Gallitep.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I’ve always found the idea of Kira’s mother being Dukat’s mistress a bit of a case of small world syndrome. Yes, it does explain his interest in her and a few other things, but it’s still just astounding that Meru’s daughter ends up being first officer of the very station he abandons. But then, coincidences do exist, after all.
All that said, there is one thing that impresses me: this episode sheds a light on why Dukat is so interested in Kira, and does it in a way that actually makes it more creepy, something which should barely be possible. Well done, there.
I had no idea that was Teri Bauer! It takes a lot of television viewing to start connecting the dots like that. It only goes to show Leslie had some real range. There’s a determination to Teri Bauer that Meru really didn’t have here. Kudos to her for pulling both characters off so distinctively.
As for the episode, using the orb might feel contrived, but at least they didn’t spend a full act having Kira steal a Runabout and going all Voyager Home-ish, slingshotting around the sun and whatnot. Better to get on with the story on a reasonable pace.
Definitely one of this season’s better efforts, not to mention being a massive improvement over Things Past. Well written, well directed, and particularly well acted. A complicated story without easy answers or resolutions. A DS9 story through and through. Another one they could never do on TNG,
Given that I now know the Orb of Time sends people to the past and doesn’t just show it to them . . . I hate this episode. The acting is good and all that, but the premise is weaker than the husband-wife special forces retrieval team from last episode. At least there it was some unknown senior Star Fleet official being moronic. This time it’s Sisko being stupid and telling Kira to go ahead and muck around in the past, but don’t step on any butterflies.
It makes no sense to me. Intentional time travel has been well-done in the past (haha), but intentional time travel with “Oh and don’t change anything!” is ridiculous and tired.
8. It kinda makes sense when you consider Kira’s character though. I mean, she would have just gone ahead and try to do that anyway. ‘Cause Kira does stuff like that. She’ll try to do it the right way first, but if she thinks it is the right thing to do, if the procedurally correct way fails her, she’ll just go right on ahead anyway. Kira is the sort of person who gives people every chance to say yes, before doing as she pleases.
If Sisko didn’t give her his blessing, Kira would probably just have gone ahead and tried, and without the blessing and cautioning of the Emissary probably have been a lot less cautious in the past and a lot more likely to screw up, probably busting into whichever monastary or sanctum it was held, clubbing some poor guard who got in her way. With a cautious blessing Kira imposes her own limitations on her actions because she doesn’t want to dissapoint Sisko who she respects as a person and as The Emissary and risks neither a dimplomatic incident, massive changes to the timestream, nor her own career.
DS9 is not my favorite of the Star Trek series, but it does one thing extremely well: historical allusions. The occupation of Bajor lends itself to a number of parallels, but this episode reminds me particularly of the French prostitutes who were punished after WWII for having served the Nazis. Kira is ready to fault even opportunistic collaborationism, but France struggles today with the shame of that knee-jerk post-war reaction. I like seeing threads of history picked up in Star Trek, and I could absolutely see further analysis of Kira’s reaction in the period after this episode being a fascinating read/watch.
I like this episode, very much. I hate watching it. For me, it brings back decisions to stay in captivity in a marriage that was horribly wrong, horribly controlling and horribly violent, to save my son, as I thought at the time. For me it was not about food for my family, but survival for the both of us.
Well, that failed, and I left, and I wasn’t able to save my son from all the damage, but he has managed to save himself after years of mental strife, and prolonged verbal and emotional torture.
Kira is my favourite DS9 character, and I had hoped she would understand Meru’s dilemma. Over time, and by Covenant S7, she seems to have a much better understanding of her mother and the total lack of choices Meru had in that situation. Save the family, the captives, or sacrifice herself and her entire family. Speaking from my own experience, it’s not an easy choice, and it sometimes is a choice that changes over time. For me, it’s so very easy to understand Meru and her choice to live delusion over revulsion. We all have to make choices to survive, and to make our families survive.
On first watching, I was so disappointed that Kira didn’t get it. Now that I have had time to think and digest this episode, she comes off more as the “Why didn’t you leave the first time he hit you” kind of woman, and that is fine, and that is her. I wish I could have watched this show, and channelled some of her strength, but I could not at that point.
I think, given time, that Kira would have learned enough to understand her mother, and her mother’s choices. It was starting in S7, and given her arc and her growth, it would have continued. Still, given all that, I find it hard to watch this because I identify far too much with Kira Meru, and it’s just something I thought I had left behind so many years ago. I only hope that I can channel Kira Nerys’ strength for the rest of my life. I try.
This is a powerful, powerful episode.
Ward3: Thank you very much for sharing that personal story. It helps put the episode into perspective, in a good way.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I really don’t like the concept of the Orb of Time, because if they have a working time machine in their use, as established in “Trials and Tribble-ations” and here, it just raises the question why they won’t use in other occasions where it would come handy? You can’t even explain it away by saying they don’t want to risk having some butterfly effect result from interacting with the past, since that doesn’t stop Sisko from allowing Kira to use it for petty personal reasons in this episode.
Most notably, later this season there’s the episode “Time’s Orphan”, where the whole plot could’ve been avoided if they’d just used the Orb. And there’s a much smaller risk of any butterfly effect there than in what Kira does here. (I don’t want spoil the plot of “Time’s Orphan” for those who haven’t seen it, but it’s very obvious once you’ve watched it.) Yet in that episode everyone conveniently forgets about the time machine they’ve used twice already.
I’m afraid I’m going to be a dissenting voice as I found this episode horribly contrived and utterly predictable. From a beginning where Dukat phones up Kira to thumb his nose at her and go “nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah, nyah” and does all but twirl his moustaches and tie a damsel to a train track to prove his evil credentials, it hits every single cliche along the way. I’ll admit Kira failing to forgive her mother at the end was a pleasant surprise, but everything else was just completely by-the-numbers.
I didn’t really enjoy this episode; but I think it’s a good example of the type of episode that should’ve cropped up more often before Waltz, to reinforce Dukat’s underlying villainy.
Otherwise, as others (especially Ward3) said. I guess it’s easy to assume Meru leapt into collaboration with both feet if you’re not privy all the – or just some salient – details, like us TV viewers, but humbling when you realise she took the burden of the role to save her family.
I can understand Kira’s continued grudge at the end too, though. Having all she thought she knew about her mother stripped away and replaced with the personal and cultural revulsion of collaboration… I’d guess you don’t get over that in a day or two.
To add to my comment above: I felt the actual story of Meru was strong, and they painted a remarkably nuanced picture of her, without condemning her the way a more black & white show would’ve. Also, the way the plot mirrorred the real-life fates of women in occupied territtories (and elsewhere, as Ward3’s post points out) made it particularly relevant. I just wish they’d come up with a less contrived framing device to tell this story…
Argh, I wrote a whole reply last night and it disappeared when I hit Quick Reply and the page failed to load. Why am I apparently the only one having problems with Tor.com lately? And why is it only this site? Anyway, I’ll try to reconstruct/summarize…
Wow, I hated this episode. Whatever might work about it on a character level is totally overshadowed by the plot problems, contrivances, and absurdities. The premise makes no sense. The station shouldn’t have existed yet at this time, and Dukat sure as hell shouldn’t have been prefect yet. They threw their own continuity out the window to make this story possible, and that’s just lazy.
And no, I don’t buy the Dickensian contrivance of having Dukat have an affair with Kira’s mother. I don’t think it “explains” his interest in Kira — it didn’t need explaining beyond what we already knew, that Dukat liked Bajoran women and was desperate to win the approval of those who disapproved of him. The explanation we had already made perfect sense and lacked for nothing; adding this connection is just contrived, corny, and melodramatic.
And I can buy using time travel to save the ship or humanity or the Federation from a huge disaster. But endangering the integrity of history so one woman can work through her mommy issues? Based on nothing more than a nasty Skype from a known liar and lunatic? That is completely, bugnuts insane on every level. There is no way in hell that Sisko should ever have authorized such a thing. There is no way in hell that Kira would’ve been that megalomaniacally self-absorbed as to think she had any right to do it in the first place. Good grief, couldn’t they at least have tried other options first? Hired a historian? Interviewed survivors? Searched the station archives for residual imprints of deleted security files? Traveled 28 light-years away and peered through the station windows with a really, really powerful optical telescope? There are so many other ways to investigate the past that jumping to this one as the first resort is completely indefensible.
Maybe the character story would’ve worked if they’d gotten the chronology right, if they’d used a different character than Dukat (hell, make it his lookalike father so Alaimo could’ve played the role), if they’d found a way to tell the story through narrated flashbacks or some kind of Orb vision rather than time travel, then it might’ve been very potent. But the story in this form should simply never have been told. Too much about it is indefensibly wrong, lazy, and stupid, and the fact that it could’ve been a powerful story if not for those inexcusable flaws just makes it more frustratingly wrong.
@9
It would have been a better episode if Kira did it on her own, but only because then it would have been one character being an idiot instead of two. And given her previous growth into not caring what Dukat thought or did, this is a huge backslide either way.
@17
May I say it feels good to be finally be on the same side of the discussion as you.
ChristopherLBennett @17
Why am I apparently the only one having problems with Tor.com lately? And why is it only this site?
Lots of us have been having problems lately. Logins appear to be seriously broken, I haven’t been able to log in for a couple of weeks. I’ve gotten in the habit of writing coments in a text editor.
And now it’s decided to let me log in. We’ll see how long this lasts…
@19: Good to know the site isn’t out to get me personally for some reason, but this is definitely a problem that needs to be fixed.
Hi, all: if you have any problems with the site or with log-in, please email webmaster@tor.com with detailed information about the issue (what browser and operating system you’re using, screenshots, etc.). That way we can address the problem as soon as possible. Thank you!
I love your reviews, but, Man, are you being harsh on this season so far.
@17: I agree with you it’s a major contrivance that Dukat had an affair with Kira’s mother and then Kira grows up to be second in command of DS9 and Dukat has the hots for her just like he did for his mom. Only in TV-land!
And The Orb of Time really is ludicrous. It would be better if it just gave visions rather than magically transport people through time. Maybe if Kira had her personal relationship with a member of the Q Contiunuum like Picard did, she could be whisked back in time to the past and interact with her mother without fear of unraveling the timeline.
And speaking of these orbs, why did the Cardassians ever give them back to the Bajorans after the occupation if they are so amazing? The Cardasssians could have gone back in time and changed so many terrible things and losses they incurred over the course of this series.
Still, I liked this episode in spite of all of the contrivances. The personal angst and discoveries Kira makes are powerful and make you think about the different shades of collaboration.
@24, remember that one of the orbs seriously messed with Zek’s head. Since the Prophets seem to see themselves (more or less) as protectors of Bajor, I suspect that any Cardassians who tried to use the orbs would be similarly screwed up. (Plus, once Sisko becomes a prophet and is unshackeled from linear time, he would be able to influence how the orbs behave, not just toward the Cardassians but also in this instance.)
“It’s never made clear whether or not male Bajorans were playthings of female Cardassian officers.”
Exactly! Where are all the comfort men, ffs?
@26
I don’t think that would help anything. For today’s men being forced to service women in that way just isn’t seen as being as degrading as the other way around. Especially considering they have to play along and act like they’re enjoying themselves.
While a good idea on paper I think it would have muddled the message that was trying to be put across.
@17
Given the date discrepancies, do you think it would have been more plausible had the writers used a different Cardassian whose age might fit the timeline better, say for instance Gul Dar’heel?
Ghe’Mor would have been interesting as well, but inconsistent enough to open up a Pandora’s Box, given his own moderate stances.
I didn’t hate this one, but I didn’t love it either. The acting was well done, and the nuanced concept of how far someone would go to save their family and whether or not a collaborator is a traitor in a situation like this is a welcome change from the usual tropes. But the “small world syndrome” problem and other issues that @17 CLB does an excellent job of describing just made it impossible to truly enjoy the episode.
@17 Reading your comment helped me figure out why this episode rubbed me the wrong way- Sisko knowingly authorized a violation of the Federation Temporal Prime Directive (you could argue that since Kira isn’t a Starfleet officer it doesn’t apply to her but that is nuance) because Kira had mommy issues.
There were so many other ways to get to the point anyways- there was a landslide at the temple the Orb was being stored at and Kira is overseeing a team to clean up when she accidentally triggers the Orb. Vedek whomever is bringing the Orb to DS9 for whatever reason. Kira is taking a spiritual pilgrammage. Whatever the explanation would be, it would make more sense that what was written.
Furthermore, it would have had more impact- Kira would have gone back in time not knowing that her Mom was Dukat’s lover, and had to deal with the impact at the same time that she was in history and trying to not screw up the timeline. There’s more drama when the character isn’t quite as prepared.
@30: The one part of this that’s worth keeping is the exploration of the extent to which collaboration can be a necessary compromise in an occupation, with Kira having to discover her mother was a collaborator. But that story should’ve been told in a radically different way — no time travel, no station setting (unless it took place a few years later), no Dukat. Having it be Dukat himself that Meru had an affair with was way too soapy, and the throwaway time travel was an abuse of an already vastly overused trope.
The Orb of Time might work different ways different times. And Sisko might not be an expert on that. So in my book, it’s totally ambiguous whether Kira actually went back in time and could have altered the timeline. Which I like.
I think Sisko made a terrible decision in giving her permission, though. “No, Major. Loads of people have had to grapple with horrible ‘revelations’ about their parents by people like Dukat, and they got through it without ascertaining the truth through mystical time-travel devices. And they’re probably better off for not being able to find out for sure. You’ll get through this too. Besides, you’re running off to do exactly what Dukat was trying to manipulate you to do — and shouldn’t that be enough reason to talk you out of absolutely ANYTHING?!”
Blech. I like a good morally-gray episode with no good answers sometimes, but this one goes too far for my taste. As @10 and @11 point out, there are some real-world parellels, and perhaps learning about those situations makes this an important story to tell … but for me, it just wasn’t the entertainment I wanted out of my Trek watching. Perhaps that means my life is too sheltered, but there you have it.
And I like the creepiness of Dukat’s crush on Kira, but this episode retroactively makes that creepiness factor go up by about 50x, which is too creepy for my taste. It does retroactively explain the Occupation’s relatively lenient treatment of Kira (e.g. in their record files), but I could have lived without that.
Long story short, I really didn’t like this episode at all.
@31 – Wasn’t the only reason that Dukat and Meru had the affair in the first place was because the writers wanted Dukat and Kira to have an affair, but Nana Visitor refused? Either way, I generally agree with your take on this episode.
@26, @27: There were comfort men of Intendant Kira in the Mirror Universe, one of which was the Mirror Sisko. I think it is still degrading for men because you are still essentially a slave for another person and their own pleasure. You could also be physically or emotionally revolted or both towards your captor too so the comfort man isn’t really getting any pleasure out of it. And why couldn’t a Cardassian male officer have a Bajoran comfort man? Of course, Star Trek has often shied away from homosexual themes even if it were strictly involving alien races.
@34 – It’s still a pretty common assumption that all men are always willing to have sex with all women. The fact that a comfort man is, just like a comfort woman, forced at gunpoint to sexually service someone they hate doesn’t seem to register.
Dukat sleeping with Meru and trying the same thing on Nerys adds a whole new level of creepy to his “relationship” with her. I don’t really think of Meru as a collaborator she has no choice. She endures and doesn’t resist by shooting or bombing anyone, but betrays no one but herself and her husband. Fighting or failure to keep the interst of Dukat would gain Meru nothing but death for herself and her family. Let her enjoy clean clothes and a full stomach and the knowledege that her children will survive while Dukat is still in courtship mode. Who knows what he is like behind closed doors when there is no one to see him and be impressed by his largesse. What happens when Dukat is no longer interested?
Another point that this episode brings up is why, in all previous conversations and arguments with Dukat and other Cardassians in the past when they have claimed to be benevolent rulers of Bajor and only trying to do what was best for the Bajorans, has “you took Bajoran women away from their families and made them sex slaves” not been the trump card?
@37: I’m sure Dukat being as sleazy as he is would justify it by saying that those women were offered better lives, always having a meal to eat, shelter over their heads, medical care, etc.
@26: “Destiny” makes it clear that the military command is overwhelmingly male and the sciences and engineering are dominated by females. The only female Gul I can recall is Ocett from “The Chase”.
I have to agree with CLB and others about the contrivances of Dukat just happened to have had an affair with Kira’s mother and the time travel part; even back in ’98 it rubbed me the wrong way, and took away from being able to really enjoy the episode. MikeKelm and CLB, your suggestions were particularly good, and would have made for a far better episode than what we got. The story itself raises important issues and the episode is well-acted, but getting there was literally the problem. Which is too bad, because I really want to enjoy the episode.
Not a fan of this ep. I couldn’t buy the coincidence of Dukat having Kira’s mother as his mistress.
And I don’t think Kira really accepted that life isn’t strictly black and white, but sometimes rather gray. Meru did what she had to do; it’s not like she really had a choice. And doing what she did well ensured the safety and well-being of the family she left behind.
This makes her more heroic that Kira, in my book. What Kira did in the Resistance was easier (she was free) than the degregation to which Meru was subjected.
And I’m a big Kira fan.
Noting the above comment #10 as having been mine, to keep things tidy on the back end.
My first reaction to this episode was that it was primarily for shock value and the writers basically shoved it in like a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit (as CLB and others have noted). I can enjoy it in isolation – exploring the nuances of collaboration, fighting, protecting your family, etc – but taken as a whole, it just doesn’t fit.
I am not usually the biggest fan of Kira. I tend to find her an angry, one-note, temper tantrum prone character who does anything she can to not evolve. But I liked this episode. It forced her, unsuccessfully mind you, to confront who she was and gave her an opportunity to come out of it with a different mindset. She did not avail herself of the opportunity and one would say that her entire time travel trip was a waste. But I liked seeing her in such a position of confusion.
I always had the impression that Kira did not in fact travel back in time, that the Orb of Time functioned to show people through visions what happened in other times rather than actually sending them back in time.
Francesco: that theory doesn’t hold up based on the very first appearance of the Orb of Time in “Trials and Tribble-ations.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
In an earlier episode, Kira confirmed her status as an indiscriminate terrorist who killed innocents to get at the guilty. Since then I am increasingly turned off by her self-righteous judgmental attitude. She lacks the capacity for empathy, and to be honest she’s capable of anything. I wouldn’t want to be close to her, or to entrust her with anyone important to me .
I confess that due to my own personal history I am a fan of digging up the past for no purpose other than to decide whether someone you loved was an asshole earlier in life. I had a huge skeleton in my family’s closet and did not know it until I was grown and had kids of my own. The revelation, when I discovered it, caused me a lot of personal anguish and pain for no reason. They say the truth will set you free. Not always. Sometimes, the truth puts you in a box that would never have existed had you merely left well enough alone. And assuming krad is correct and that Kira did in fact go back in time, Sisko shows an astonishing lack of judgement in allowing her to do so. Given what she’s done in the past, he could have predicted she would risk altering the future as it applies to Dukat if she confirmed his story.
7: It’s the Voyage Home. 13: I think the Orb of Time will only send someone back in time if the Prophets allow it, although why it let Arne Darvin travel back to the 23rd Century to assassinate Kirk is a mystery. Maybe so the Defiant crew could bring Tribbles back from the dead? And Vince from The Secret World of Alex Mack shows up to have his ass kicked by Kira!
but 2346 is only twenty years after the occupation started
@krad: Actually, I don’t believe it is. In the pilot, Emissary, Kira mentions that the occupation lasted closer to sixty years. That was in 2369, meaning the occupation had to have to started around 2310-2314. The math is still dubious, however, as Dukat would have become Bajor’s prefect around the 30 year mark of the occupation, rather than 40. But then again, Dukat isn’t above rewriting history to serve his vision.
I have to strongly agree with #23. I’m really enjoying these reviews while I rewatch DS9 (again), but the season 6 ratings have been crazy low, for what was almost certainly the best season of Star Trek, and one of the best seasons of TV, ever produced. Being sandwiched between In The Pale Moonlight and Far Beyond The Stars doesn’t mean it should be held to a much higher standard. The mechanism for time travel is a bit contrived, but it’s glossed over enough it barely impacts, making this a 9-10 in my estimation.
I’m confused. Did Nerys understood her mother’s decision to become Dukat’s mistress or not? Her decision to save her mother and Dukat seemed to conflict with her final comments on what happened. I hate when this happens. I realize the writer is trying to be ambiguous, but I don’t think that ending was executed very well.
Late to the party, and I haven’t read every single comment, so I’m not sure anyone has mentioned this angle. What annoyed me at the beginning was the failure of anyone, specifically Sisko, to say to Kira, “Don’t you see that Dukat is just trying to mess with your mind? What will you gain if it turns out he’s right? You’ll just feel awful, and it will probably affect your work for a long time. Don’t you think that’s exactly what Dukat wants?” She would come back with her typical, “But I have to KNOOOWWW” and he should have said, “I can’t sanction the use of the Orb for personal matters, especially when it’s so likely to do emotional harm.” Then, if they had to do this story, they could have her do it on the sly. Or have Dukat keep nagging at her with more bits of evidence somehow. That would have a lot more suspense, IMO.
I liked this episode a lot. The themes were very worth exploring here, and I don’t think the continuity problems of getting the math to work are as serious as people make them out to be.
Right now I’m doing an entire Trek rewatch in order, so I’m in Season 4 of Voyager at the same time as Season 6 if DS9, and following along with KRAD’s rewatches as I go. What really strikes me while doing this is how KRAD can’t help but grade the two shows on different curves. I know, the Warp Factor Rating is the least important part of the reviews, but even a WF 7 DS9 episode has really great performances and depth, but a Voyager episode can get a 9 for being somewhat interesting, remembering it actually had a talented cast, and not screwing up continuity too much.
Lockdown rewatch. Was never sure about this one although it does at least mean we get to see “proper Dukat” at least one last time, but the orb of time thing.. I am sure that was just intended to be created as a gag for the comedic episode Trials and Tribble-ations so to bring it back in a dark episode was in my opinion a mistake.. also I am fully prepared to suspend disbelief for time travel episodes but I am not so forgiving about suspending logic, Kira assures Sisko she won’t change the time line but every action she takes appears to be attempting to do just that. Straight away the first thing she does is save her father from (admittedly the galaxy’s most useless) robbers, then she does everything to change her Mothers actions and then goes along with a plan attempting to kill Dukat.. did all this happen in the previous time line? Has Kira replaced a real person from the past… none of this scans to me. On the plus side the acting is first rate which makes this watchable.. but no not one of my favourite episodes.
@55: I believe the bombing attack was mentioned in “Waltz” by Dukat about a bombing in his quarters when giving his “EVIDENCE!!!” to Sisko.
Why do the records show that Kira Meru died of malnutrition at the Singha Refugee Centre? Did someone (Dukat?) doctor the records?24: I doubt the Orbs ever worked for the Cardassians. They could open them up and nothing would happen until they were even more grey in the face.
I definitely felt like episode ignored that Meru’s relationship with Dukat wasn’t consensual?
I feel like the episode said “sex work is work and Meru consented to it.” …And I was sitting there saying “a sexual relationship under the threat of starvation/death/occupation of your entire planet is rape, not sex work.” It’s not a sugar daddy if there’s a gun to your children’s heads
This was the silliest excuse for someone to go time traveling since Assignment: Earth. I’m surprised that Lucsly and Dulmur didn’t have to come back to file a report. That orb of time ought to be locked away in some warehouse for dangerous objects.
Yes, bluntly there’s no “collaboration” in Meru’s actions as she’s at gun point or her family is. Under no circumstances can what she do be consensual and she’s as much a victim as anyone else in the Occupation. As for the “soap operaness” of the fact Kira’s mother is Gul Dukat’s mistress, I think they should have gone further and made it clear that Ziyal’s mother was Meru.
Ziyal’s mother couldn’t have been established as Meru in this episode. It was clearly established in “Indiscretion” that it was Tora Naprem and Dukat identified her remains from her earring while standing next to Kira. If Meru was Ziyal’s mother, Kira would’ve learned it then, because she would’ve recognized the earring.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@60 & 61: Plus, making Meru Ziyal’s mother would’ve been way too soap-opera, and would’ve undermined the point that Meru was just one of many women Dukat used and exploited, despite his pretense of genuine affection.
This episode convinced me that Dukat is the Cardassian version of Keanu Reeves, he never seems to age!
I enjoyed this episode decently well for the adventure of it, though as far as “adventure” goes it really felt more like a slog a lot of the time, and I guess that’s the right feel, but it could have had a little less sleepwalking. Like the part where Kira is working for the mine, it’s all just rote and factual, and I’m thinking ‘whoa, she’s been stuck there for weeks? does she know the trick to getting home? does she wonder why the Prophets want her to stay this long?’
So that led me to a revision of the script that I kind of wish they had done. Where we see her praying to the Prophets, asking why she’s stuck there, why she’s been forced to do labor for weeks, she has her answers and she wants to go home. To me, that tension would have made the whole episode stronger. Instead she’s just kind of hanging out in the past, stomping the butterflies.
I agree with the above comments that said she should have used the Orb without permission. She could have shown up at the Temple and lied after Sisko’s no. Could have been some levity before we got too serious.
I disagree with the folks who say Meru was not making a choice. I don’t think there was a gun held to her family’s heads. I think she could have told Dukat she’s had enough and wants to go home at any time. She chose this because she knew her children would likely die or be very sick if she didn’t. She has no delusions about saving everyone. She doesn’t know this is ever going to end. She just sees what appears to be The Way Things Are From Now On and she’s making the best life she can for herself and her family.
The fact that she enjoys it reminds me of how our privileged classes (myself included, near the bottom edge somewhere) are living lives of comfort and luxury thanks to slave-ish labor conditions, raping the Earth, etc. Someday I hope history will last long enough to look upon us with similar judgmental disdain. What are we going to do, give up our cars, homes, Netflix? But there are people starving and suffering, sometimes right outside of our party venue. And many of us are not just enjoying ourselves, but taking in toxic substances, non-nutritive food, etc while we’re at it. Driving gas guzzling SUVs with leather seats with stomachs full of steak served on handmade imported tableware from Amazondotcom. Future Nerys, I’m sorry. But that’s just how the world is, right?…
As usual, thanks to Tor for providing space for me to bloviate. Cheaper than therapy!