Rewatcher’s note: There will be no DS9 Rewatch on Friday the 26th of December. We’ll be back on Tuesday the 30th with “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” Happy holidays!
“Covenant”
Written by Rene Echevarria
Directed by John Kretchmer
Season 7, Episode 9
Production episode 40510-559
Original air date: November 25, 1998
Stardate: unknown
Station log: Kira joins Odo, Bashir, and Dax for a drink after services. They talk about faith and religions and stuff for a while, and then Kira goes back to her quarters, where she’s visited by Vedek Fala, who was her religion teacher growing up in the refugee camp. He gives Kira a present, which turns out to be a homing beacon that transports her to Empok Nor. The station has been taken over by the Pah-wraith cult, under the guidance of their new master, Dukat.
Dukat and Kira talk, the former sounding exactly like every cult leader ever, the latter taking even more snotty shots than usual at him. Dukat insists that the Pah-wraiths were cast from the Celestial Temple because they wanted to take a more active role in Bajor’s fate, and the Prophets didn’t like that. Dukat also claims that he’s the Emissary of the Pah-wraiths. He’d become their vessel solely in order to get revenge on Sisko, but now he sees that there’s a greater plan at work.
He brought the Bajorans who worship the Pah-wraiths to Empok Nor so they can cleanse themselves in preparation for the Pah-wraiths’ grand plan for Bajor. Kira is pretty sure that their plan has something to do with Dukat ruling Bajor again. He brought Kira there because he wants her to join them—to join him.
Sisko, Odo, Worf, and O’Brien investigate Kira’s disappearance, but all they know for sure is that a Dominion transporter took her away, and she could be as far as three light-years away in any direction.
On Empok Nor, Fala visits Kira, revealing that he became part of the Pah-wraith cult toward the end of the occupation. He accepted Dukat as their master because he believes the Pah-wraiths washed him clean and allowed him to start anew. He takes her on a tour of the station, where they meet Mika, who’s pregnant and about to give birth. She also meets Benyan, Mika’s husband, who’s painting a mural of Dukat on one of the bulkheads. Kira is appalled to realize that the people there can’t procreate without Dukat’s consent. They all take a vow of abstinence as part of their covenant with Dukat and with the Pah-wraiths.
During services, Kira manages to get her hands on a phaser and holds it on Dukat—but then everyone steps between her and Dukat, willing to die to protect him. She’s quickly subdued, and Dukat takes her to her cabin to tend to her. He brings her food, and she contemplates stabbing him with a fork, but Dukat reminds her that that’ll just make him a martyr.
He insists that the occupation would’ve been much worse without him, and she throws his tryst with her mother in his face. As far as she’s concerned, all she sees is a good-parts version of the occupation: he has the station, he has Bajorans to serve his every whim, and best of all, this time the Bajorans do actually love him. For his part, Dukat thinks Kira was sent as a test to him: if he can convert her, he can convert any Bajoran.
Mika goes into labor. Benyan is thrilled to be the father of the first child born to the community. However, the child she gives birth to is half-Bajoran and half-Cardassian. Dukat spins a bullshit story that the Pah-wraiths have changed the baby in the womb into a symbol of the covenant between him and them.
Kira is stunned that Fala actually believes that this is anything other than Dukat trying to cover up his having had sex with Mika—especially given the look on Mika’s face after she gives birth. When she and Fala talk to Benyan, he’s obviously a bit strained, and reveals that, before Dukat gave permission for them to have children, he prayed with them many times, both together and separately—so yeah, Dukat “prayed” with Mika alone. Wah hey!
Dukat finds Mika at an airlock, and they confirm in their furtive conversation that they did sleep together in what Dukat claims is a moment of weakness. He then closes her in the airlock and opens the other door. However, Kira and Fala arrive and save her. Dukat insists it was an accident, but Kira doesn’t buy that. And when Dukat tries to lead the cultists in prayer, Fala doesn’t join in.
In his quarters, Dukat kneels before an altar and apologizes to the Pah-wraiths for his moment of weakness with Mika, and he fears that Mika will reveal the truth when she awakens, and so he asks them for guidance.
Then he rings the bell for services, albeit not at the usual time. Dukat announces that he received his final vision from the Pah-wraiths, who have asked them all to join the Pah-wraiths in their battle against the Prophets. They will all abandon their corporeal bodies in the morning to join this battle. Kira realizes that Dukat’s killing them all to avoid losing all his followers and having them turn on him. He’s using a drug the Obsidian Order developed that kills quickly and turns the body to dust—and he insists to Kira that he’s happy to do it. He’s also sent a message to DS9 so that they can come fetch her when it’s all over.
Kira manages to break out of her cabin just as Dukat starts his little mass suicide. Kira attacks him before he takes his pill, and he drops it onto the floor as he knocks over a plate of the pills. Dukat has lost the pill he was going to take, and he hesitates, unwilling to pick up another pill. Fala hands him another, but he refuses to take it. Kira realizes that his own pill was a placebo that her attack made him lose. He is forced to admit that he never intended to die, as he needs to continue his work. The faithful turn on him, and Dukat angrily rips off his earring and beams away.
Fala takes the pill and dies, to Kira’s shock and disgust. He still had his faith, despite Dukat’s betrayal.
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Empok Nor has only one working fusion reactor, so the station’s on minimal power. They don’t have enough for replicators, so they grow their own food in a converted cargo bay (it’s unclear what they ate before the hydroponics stuff was up and running, nor is it clear where they get water from—though that’s actually an easy fix, as there’s ice in comets that could easily be melted, but that’s never mentioned). Somehow, though, they have enough power for a Dominion transporter.
Don’t ask my opinion next time: Kira is her usual takes-no-crap self, never once giving an inch to Dukat or to Fala when she’s captured, and her constant poking with a stick eventually pays off, as the doubts her skepticism sows bear fruit when Dukat proves to be a lying asshole.
Preservation of mass and energy is for wimps: Odo is sorry that he doesn’t believe in the Prophets, because it means he can’t go to services with Kira, and he wants to share things with her.
The slug in your belly: Dax thinks it’s sweet that Odo wants to be able to go to services with Kira. She feels sufficiently strongly about this that she says it twice.
For Cardassia! Dukat has managed to get his hands on some useful stuff from the Dominion-occupied Cardassian Union, including a Dominion transporter and at least fifty Obsidian Order suicide pills.
Victory is life: The Dominion transporter that can send people over long distances, not seen since “The Jem’Hadar,” is put to use by both Fala and Dukat in this episode.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet: Dukat’s prayer meetings to see if Benyan and Mika were worthy of having children were apparently quite hot and heavy, since he and Mika conceived a child during it…
Keep your ears open: “That was a long time ago, before he felt the kiss of the Pah-wraiths.”
“That was some kiss.”
Fala defending Dukat and Kira not buying it.
Welcome aboard: Marc Alaimo is back as Dukat, while Jason Leland Adams, Maureen Flannigan, Miriam Flynn, Norman Parker, and Mark Piateli play the various and sundry Bajorans he’s hoodwinked.
Trivial matters: Dukat became a vessel of the Pah-wraiths (and killed Jadzia) in “Tears of the Prophets,” and wanted revenge on Sisko after the events of “Waltz.”
Fala says that the boy who attacked Sisko on Earth in “Image in the Sand” operated on his own without the consent of the rest of the Pah-wraith cult. He also reminds Kira of the miracle of making an entire Dominion fleet disappear in “Sacrifice of Angels.”
Kira learned that Dukat took her mother as a comfort woman in “Wrongs Darker than Death or Night.”
Mika, Benyan, and their baby are seen again in the Mission: Gamma novel Cathedral by Andy Mangels & Michael A. Martin, defending Kira, whom they credit with saving their lives.
Dukat must have been in place at the station for at least five or six months, since the Bajoran gestation period (established in “Body Parts”) is five months.
This is the third use of Empok Nor, following the station’s eponymous episode and “The Magnificent Ferengi.” It’ll next be seen in your humble rewatcher’s Starfleet Corps of Engineers novella Cold Fusion.
The episode’s conception came from former investigative reporter David Weddle, who had written about cults for both the San Jose Mercury News and L.A. Weekly. In particular, the collective on Empok Nor was inspired by Marshal Applewhite’s “Heaven’s Gate” cult who also committed mass suicide to abandon their corporeal bodies for a journey to the stars, in this case to the spaceship that was allegedly hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet in 1997. (The Heaven’s Gate web site is still live, and maintained by two members of the cult, though the design makes it clear that it hasn’t been updated since ’97…)
Walk with the Prophets: “Our covenant is broken!” I have gone on the record as saying how much I despise the entire concept of the Pah-wraiths, but I will say that this particular episode is the one and only time it completely works. The fact that this is also the only Pah-wraith episode that doesn’t have alien possession, glowing eyes, and people firing ray-beams out of their fingers is not a coincidence.
What this episode addresses is faith, and when DS9 deals with faith in an intelligent manner (to wit, one that doesn’t involve the special effects crew), it’s usually well done: “In the Hands of the Prophets” and “Rapture” spring to mind as a couple of the best examples.
And this is another. One of the great contradictions of faith is how you can believe in a kind, benevolent, merciful deity when there’s so much suffering in the world. Yet there are so many cases of the strongest faith being found in those who suffer the most, whether it’s the Jews who lived and died under Nazi Germany or the Africans and their descendants who were enslaved by white people in the United States—or the Bajorans who lived under the Cardassian occupation. But then there are also those who can’t handle the notion that their deity loves them and cares for them yet lets them suffer so much, and so they reject the deity—but the need is still there, the faith is still there, just looking for a target, as it were.
Into that breach steps Dukat, a most charismatic man, who has the perfect tale of redemption. The villain of the occupation redeemed by the “true Prophets,” the ones who were cast out of the Celestial Temple for trying to help Bajor. Given the actual history—Pah-wraiths cast out, the Prophets themselves being incredibly vague and hard to comprehend, Bajor’s long suffering under Cardassian rule—the road taken by Fala and the rest of the cult is completely understandable. There’s a great speech from Michael J. Fox’s character in The American President, when he says that people are so desperate for leadership that they’ll crawl across a desert toward a mirage, and when they get there, they’re so thirsty that they drink the sand.
Of course, Michael Douglas’s president retorts that people don’t drink the sand because they’re thirsty, they drink it because they don’t know any better, which certainly applies here. It’s impossible to feel completely sorry for Fala and Benyan and Mika because they fall for Dukat’s entire line despite all the evidence that suggests that Kira’s absolutely right. While Fala has a point about how the beings that live in the wormhole have provided miracles in the past, it’s still kinda disheartening that Kira’s the only one who applies Occam’s Razor to deduce that Dukat had sex with Mika. (Of course I say that while living in a world where people still believe that the Earth is only 6000 years old, so—yeah.)
Either way, Dukat is getting everything he wants out of this: Bajorans serving him, Bajorans loving him, and Bajoran women boinking him, with the added bonus of not being answerable to Central Command, the Detapa Council, or the Obsidian Order, just a bunch of beings of pure energy who apparently only talk to him (if they talk at all).
And yet, the script is sufficiently vague that Kira’s interpretation at the end—that Dukat is still a bastard, but he actually believes what he’s spouting, which is supported in part by Dukat’s solitary prayer—is also valid. So, sadly, is Odo’s: that Dukat really is a vessel of the Pah-wraiths, which sets up Dukat’s absolutely dreadful story in the series’ closing arc.
This episode itself, though, works very nicely. This is the last time we get the complex Kira-Dukat pas-de-deux that Marc Alaimo and Nana Visitor do so amazingly well, in so many different permutations, and it remains magnificent. Plus we get a good character study of the tragic cultist in Fala, who has had his faith shredded by circumstance, but who can’t bring himself to give it up, and so drinks the sand.
Warp factor rating: 7
Keith R.A. DeCandido wishes everyone the great joy of the solstice season, as the sun renews itself, giving us hope for the coming year. Happy Holidays.
I can’t argue with your analysis, even including the fact that the Bajorans’ religious extremism is (sadly) believable. But I lack your enthusiasm for the result. Perhaps it just lacks the nuance I want to see in a Star Trek episode, even if real suicide-level cultists don’t have much nuance.
I do find it baffling how you can find this nutcase-Dukat more interesting than the nutcase-Dukat from Waltz. I thought his madness was much more entertaining there.
I found this one painful, and surprised to see such positivity. The cult theme felt like it was designed to hit all of the right beats in reminding us the Dukat is a bad bad man (and stupid too).
If he’s already called his cult to a meeting and told them there will be a special announcement, wouldn’t it be clear that his followers would be there? Why broadcast the announcement over the comm system?
He knows he’s potentially impregnated his follower, and he doesn’t have some sort of Dominion RU486? Was there any prenatal care? Wouldn’t someone have noticed Cardassian physiology in the fetus? And the best he could come up with was “magic God baby” is why he looks like the baby daddy?
As a faith-focused individual, I am wary of how religion will get toyed with in the media, and I think DS9 has generally done well. As a often called cultist, I’m even more concerned with how someone will try to take my beliefs and portay them in a cult setting. This is something that mostly handled cleanly here, but I am bothered that the well that they went to was “cult leader splits families to bump uglies with the hot lady”. That fear and assumption is one that leads to crazy travel policies (on church related travel, I can’t travel alone with a woman; I also can’t have a closed door meeting with a woman).
The Dukat I expected would have believed with both feet. it feels like they started that way, but they wanted to end the episode with an ambiguous “does he believe or is he preying on the silly beliefs of these folks” takeaway. Tack on the weak meanwhile back at the ranch station story, and I’m just generally disappointed.
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I never cared for this one much. I was never that fond of the late-series approach to Dukat, and the cult-leader stuff was kind of predictable and heavy-handed. At least when Dukat was an uneasy ally in the middle seasons, there was some legitimate tension and ambiguity to his interactions with Kira, a possibility that she could find some redeeming qualities in him while never forgiving him for his past crimes or giving him the relationship he wanted. By the time he became full-on bugnuts, though, there was nowhere for that “pas de deux” to go, because there was no chance Kira would shift in her attitudes toward the one-dimensional character he’d become. So it’s just going through the motions by this point. This episode felt like an afterthought to an arc that was already over. (And the reminders of the awful “Wrongs Darker…” didn’t help at all.)
The Empok Nor setting felt like a rather blatant money-saving cheat (it’s just the DS9 sets lit and dressed differently), although I guess it can be justified in terms of Dukat wanting to recreate what he once had. And it’s annoying when they take a gamechanging technology like interstellar transporters and just use it as a throwaway plot point when it’s convenient and later forget it (see also TNG: “Bloodlines”).
I found parts of this episode really predictable. As soon as Fala mentioned that the couple needed permission from Dukat to have a baby, and that they were the only ones that got it, I knew the baby was going to end up being Dukat’s. It was kind of hard to swallow that they believed Dukat’s story about the baby-changing, and it kind of also made it hard to believe that they then would not believe/forgive Dukat about not dying with them at the end. I mean, if they’d had that much Kool-Aid…. I found Benyan’s sudden realization of “This IS his child!” to be really laughably delivered.
Oh, and Benyan’s painting of Dukat kept reminding me of Janosz’s painting of Vigo from Ghostbusters II, so I also kept cracking up at that.
First of all, why do meetings happen in airlocks? Just…why???
And don’t airlock door controls have some kind of sensor that’s like WOAH THERE IS A LIVE PERSON IN THIS AIRLOCK!
Anyway, I can echo some of Rancho’s concerns about religion in the media although this particular episode I didn’t mind too much (maybe because I just like to see Dukat ham it up). I think Fala’s story is actually quite interesting and I also want to know what his last words actually meant! I’m also kind of interested in what they believe about the pah-Wraiths (especially the ones before Dukat got to them). Were they all like the guy who tried to kill Sisko? There have been a few references to ‘hate and anger’ regarding the pah-Wraith cultists, but I wonder what that cult actually looked like before Dukat took over with his story about the pah-Wraiths being kicked out for wanting to interfere with Bajor (or if that was always a part of the cult).
Actually, I was thinking it would have been kind of a neat twist if it turned out the pah-wraiths actually WERE on the Bajoran’s side and the aggrieved party (and even more of a twist of Dukat actually did have a true redemption, but I like redemption stories) – although that’s not the kind of twist you pull in your 7th season, in my opinion. It does seem like Dukat does truly believe he’s doing the pah-wraith’s bidding (although what their true aim is, who knows) and is probably also crazy enough to think he knows what’s best for the Bajorans and sees himself as some kind of loving, indulgent father figure. But he’s crazy.
But I can see where some of the frustration between the good vs evil wormhole aliens comes in. I can actually buy that, as sentient beings, there may very well have been different ‘factions’ and conflicts amongst them we know nothing about (or probably couldn’t even comprehend). But we don’t really get that, we just get good gods and bad gods.
But I still maintain that it would have been more interesting for, instead of the Dominion War, the series to focus on Bajor and Cardassia rebuilding and trying to move past the occupation, and Dukat being a more ambiguous character.
“since he and Mike conceived a child”
Wow, DS9 was more progressive than I thought! (kidding) That said, an interesting episode and yeah I think the Pah-wraith thing was handled the best way the series has so far. It sure as hell beats the Dragonball-Z-esque Beam Of War earlier…or the finale…
Icchan: GAH! I kept mistyping Mika as Mike, and I thought I corrected all of them. *headdesk*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido, grateful as always for the mighty mighty edit function
I thought it was pretty clever of Echevarria to take Dukat down the Jim Jones route for this one. This episode makes good use of the Pah’ Wraiths concept.
And it fits naturally with Dukat’s character journey. This is a Cardassian who’s always pursued the acceptance and admiration of the Bajoran people, not to mention the interspecies sexual attraction. Making him a Pah’ Wraith cult leader seems like a natural fit for this kind of story.
As Keith pointed out, Faith makes for a juicy story, especially misplaced hardcore faith like Vedek Fala’s. This one worked pretty well to me, especially that final act.
Rancho Unicorno @2:
I was far more under the impression that the baby was intentional on Dukat’s part, or at least that once her pregnancy was revealed, he knew it could be his and decided to use it to his advantage. He wouldn’t have wanted an abortion, because he could use the baby. Everyone knew she was pregnant, so presumably there was prenatal care, though perhaps not advanced enough on Empok Nor to detect the Cardassian features. I read “magic god-baby” as the reason he had been waiting to give all along, not an excuse.
Odo wanting to go to services with Kira represents an issue for a lot of couples who are of different faith backgrounds. I think it was depicted quite well here – the interest in sharing that part of your partner’s life, but being unable to.
@9 I don’t know. Between the pregnant pause, the seeking forgiveness from his Gods, and the airlock conversation, i thought he was surprised by the baby. i agree that if he was aware of it he would have kept the baby and found a way to use it (and maybe not sound like he was caught with his pants around his ankles), and could even see value in eventually having admitted kids with some of the women.
What would have been a stroke of genius would have been getting that face life he has coming, and then starting the cult. Could you imagine how he could have played that as a sign of Bajorans and Cardassians being ready to become closer partners, and nobody would have been the wiser?
@10: I just figured that was Dukat being Dukat. I always assume he’s being manipulative…
@11: I gotta agree here and say that Dukat looked positively surprised at seeing the baby was Cardassian. So I’m not sure it was part of a master plan.
I have to say the whole “I wish I believed so I could enjoy services with you” is not sweet in the slightest. It is sort of creepy and borderline condescending. Odo is essentially saying, “I think your beliefs are stupid and invalid (to the point I would never believe), but I am so obsessed with being with you that I wish I could be so naive and enjoy it like you.” (Not to mention that Odo’s relationship with Kira isn’t very believable anyway. It is more an obsession/infatuation on his part, and she indulges it and buys in for some reason. Probably because on TV, when you love someone enough, they always fall for you, simply because you like them.)
I am no longer a religious individual, but even when I was, the last thing I would have wanted was someone coming to services that didn’t want to be there. I wouldn’t want you to fake it. Odo isn’t saying he wants to come along and fake it, but he treats church like a form of entertainment. Church is not a movie or a concert or a nature walk.
I have no issue with Kira’s beliefs or Odo’s lack of beliefs. Obviously, in any cross-belief relationship, there are decisions to be made about what things you celebrate, or might teach to your children (kids not being an issue here though). Still, why would he even say such a thing? I have been involved with fairly religious people in the past, and I was always careful to only involve myself in things when my partner wanted me there, and even then, there were a few instances where I felt my presence was inappropriate as a non-believer, and thus I did not attend some things. In the long run, I haven’t been to any religious service in quite some time, and am very upfront with potential partners.
We never get the notion that Kira wants him to “convert” or to go along despite his non-believer status. If the implicit notion is that she wants him there or asked him to be, then that makes her more manipulative in the relationship than we have seen her be. I don’t think she minds one way or the other.
Your mileage may vary, but those are my thoughts on the Odo-Kira thing. Sorry for the longer rant. DS9 seems to go back and forth on the religious stuff. In some of the early Bajoran episodes, it seemed they were saying religious folks are so stupid. Like when the Bajorans don’t want Keiko teaching some of the science in the school. It really felt like in some of those early Bajoran episodes that they were firmly taking the secular Starfleet/Federation approach to things. Of course later, once the Prophets were out of the bag (especially once they “whooshed” the ships away, and all the Benny Russell stuff, and the orbs), they really couldn’t justify a fully non-religious approach. Even if the Prophets et al are simply non-corporeal aliens, they are still allowed to be plenty God-like when the plot wants it.
Aside from that, the episode is pretty decent. Standard cult stuff, but done well and realistically. Dukat is his normal charming-in-the-worst-way self.
@13: I do not think for a moment that “In the Hands of the Prophets” was saying that religious people were stupid. After all, it showed Kira as a devout believer herself who nonetheless disapproved of Winn’s exploitation of religion as an excuse for a power grab. If anything, its ultimate message was that the person who defined her piety by the condemnation of others was not truly pious at all, and didn’t deserve to be the exemplar of faith that she pretended to be. That’s not a condemnation of religious people, it’s a defense of sincere religious faith against the self-serving, petty people who abuse religion as an excuse to elevate themselves at others’ expense.
And Odo wasn’t saying he saw services as a form of entertainment; he was saying he wished he could share this important part of Kira’s life with her.
@14 I will certainly concede that just because a few people who are members of a religion are doing negative or counterproductive things, it doesn’t follow that the whole religion or all its members are problematic. I would never say it did. I just felt that early in the series, the Bajoran religion seemed like more of an obstacle for the Federation trying to manage the station. One that was met with frustration and eye rolls more than acceptance or friendship. Even Sisko isn’t really into his Emissary role at first (of course, once he is, he is all in).
Of course, all this push/pull becomes less so later on (save for the whole Pah Wraiths thing). They do a wonderful job of showing that one Bajoran festival on the station.
I also watched the whole series in less than 5 weeks, so it could be that my pacing made the religious obstacles early on seem bigger, as they were cropping up over and over in a short time frame. Watched in real time at the time, it probably feels less heavy.
@14 Moreover, I think Kira is a shining example of true, selfless faith. She thinks critically about things, and she doesn’t really judge others for not believing just as she does. She has her faith tested over and over, and stays pretty strong. Any religion, and the world in general, could use more Kiras.
@13: With all due respect, I must disagree with your assessment of the conversation between Kira and Odo. I’ll use a personal example to explain my interpretation.
My uncle is a seriously devout Catholic – fanatically so. I am an atheist. When my aunt died a couple of years ago, I was jealous of my uncle’s faith. He truly believed his god was welcoming her home, that she was with Jesus now, or whatever it is devout Catholics believe. He was sorry to lose his companion of nearly 50 years, but he was not sad, because he truly believed she was in a better place. For my part, I was quite sad, because I don’t believe in an afterlife, and so all there was for me was loss. Of course I said nothing of it to my uncle – I would never wound him in his time of grief.
I envied my uncle’s faith because it gave him comfort I couldn’t find. I don’t think his beliefs are naive or stupid or invalid. They’re his beliefs, and he’s welcome to them; they have no bearing on me. I think this is how Odo approaches Kira’s belief, too. That it’s good that she has faith. She can access answers and understandings he can’t. She’s part of a community he can’t join, because he doesn’t believe – but he wishes he could share in that part of her life, and understand the joy she gets from it.
And I think Kira, for her part, understands and appreciates his desire to share with her, and acknowledges that he can’t. It’s like maintaining a long-term, long-distance relationship. Of course you want to be with the other person more often, but sometimes things are in the way. You both accept this, you acknowledge it, and you work around it to make your lives better. Whether it’s distance or religion, there’s always things couples have to work on. I don’t find it condescending in the slightest to talk about those things. Maybe a bar with friends isn’t the place to talk about it, but the discussion is certainly a fair one.
@13 – I get what you are saying, but I think that @17 more closely echos how I would respond in Kira’s shoes. My wife and I don’t have a multi-faith issue, but my mom & sisters and I do.
I attend functions with them regardless of how I feel because it is something important to them, and thus important to me. Would it be nice to get the same feeling they do when they do? Of course. But, I do enjoy being able to gain a stronger understanding of their faith and what makes them whole. Occasionally there is a direct invitation, but often it is just taken as an assumption.
Still, I appreciate both of your comments – I tend to feel uncomfortable when they attend with me (although I took it as a given they would come with when I was a kid) because I think they may be uncomfortable. For some reason, that they can get the same joy of spending time together never clicked until I read your comments. It means a lot to gain this feeling.
Going back to that conversation, I am sad that Odo felt that he couldn’t attend because he didn’t share the beliefs. Outside of limited and specific facilities where only faithful members are admitted, I can’t think of a time when non-believers wouldn’t be welcome to join us – be it in worship or social activity. He may not have been able to partake in the afterglow that Kira enjoys, but I don’t see him as the kind to make inappropriate remarks during the ceremony and he would have been able to “share in that part of her life, and [see] the joy she gets from it.” I can’t speak on behalf of the Bajorans, but I’m guessing they would feel the same way.
Hello everybody, Merry Christmas and I hope everyone is having a nice Christmas Eve. Zoidberg. P.S. I’m working tonight “keeping London safe” and all that. Glad I have DS9 rewatch to keep me entertained…
Agree with several of the commenters above. Not a fan of this episode, despite cults being a realistic plot device. Maybe I just wanted pah-wraiths to quit. Because enough of that plot, already.
I’m with the majority here it seems in not really caring for this episode. It started off badly with the magical long distance Dominion transporter, a game changing technology that would have made the Dominion War very brief and unpleasant for the Federation. Even putting that aside, I didn’t care for the whole idea of exploring the concept of faith using a cult as the example. It’s typical of TV shows to focus on the unique and extreme aspects of whatever they focus on. A good example is how medical shows always seem to feature the rare and exotic situations and diseases (the “zebras”) instead of the mundane stuff that is way more common. Most people with faith aren’t members of a cult, but TV insists on making cultists the example for strong faith. The thing is that cults aren’t started because the members have such a strong faith. Cults get started when someone with a strong, powerful personality can charm and fool people with weak faith into believing strongly in their twisted interpretation of an existing belief. Cult leaders aren’t recruiting new members by trying to convert those who already have a strong faith. They prey on the people who don’t have any faith and need something to hold on to. They’re con men, and while Dukat plays that role here quite well, I really don’t think it’s all that interesting. It’s not a bad episode, but it’s a long way from being one of my favorites.
@21: But pretty much all fiction is about the extreme and unrepresentative examples of any given thing, because ordinary examples aren’t as interesting. Most real-life cops rarely, if ever, get into gunfights, but fictional cop stories almost always involve them. Real-life cars almost never explode when they crash, but fictional cars invariably do. And how about the way that any TV episode about a character’s old partner coming back ends up with the partner turning out to be the bad guy? I doubt that happens to most people who are reunited with past colleagues.
So really, nobody should expect anything in fiction to be representative of its typical real-life counterparts. That’s not about religion, it’s just about how fiction is based on the unusual and dramatic.
I do wish there had been much less “mono-cultureness” of the Bajorian religion. I would have liked to see explanations as to how Bajorians would treat other Bajorians who may:
1: Be Athiest and don’t consider the Pagh-Wraiths/Prophets as Gods
2: Resent Both the Prophets and Pagh-Wraiths for intereference in Bajor’s development.
3: Pagh-Wraith believers who dont attack Sisko or become cultists. Would freedom of religion be given to them officially?
Basically religious difference without making them bad guys.
@23: TNG established that Ro Laren wasn’t a follower of Bajoran religion. She also wore her earring on the “wrong” ear, an affectation later associated with Pah-wraith cultists; according to the novels, this was both to demonstrate her lack of religious belief (while still valuing her cultural heritage) and to make it harder for vedeks to grab her ear and try to read her pagh.
(I wish DS9 had explained that at some point. Do Bajorans have some kind of telepathy that works through ear contact, or is it just an unsubstantiated belief, like a seance or psychic reading or something?)
@24 I didnt know that about Ro Laren. I assume then they were still hashing out the religion specifics of the new race.
We never did see any Bajorians without any earring did we?
Eoin8472: We’ve seen a few scattered Bajorans without earrings, but they’ve been singular and rare — or, in the case of, say, Sito Jaxa, to follow Starfleet regulations (and tellingly, she did wear one once she was out of uniform and undercover). And there was Vaatrik Pallra, who had a very decorative earring in the present-day portions of “Necessary Evil.”
Christopher: I’m not sure it was ever formally established anywhere on TNG that Ro wasn’t religious as such. The only time it ever even came up was her plaintive cry for the crew not to do the death chant for her in “The Next Phase.” What other onscreen evidence is there? (The novels have established her as atheistic, and also explained that she wears the earring on the other ear to keep vedeks from grabbing hers….)
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
The “wrong side” earring thing with Ro Laren has been mentioned in the TNG rewatch, but hear the cultists seem to be wearing a different kind of red earring as well. So I feel that simply wearing the traditional earring on the other ear shouldn’t be an immediate indication of a Pah Wraith follower.
@26: You’re probably right — what I remember about Ro’s beliefs comes from the novels, not the show. I must’ve misremembered.
I assumed the earrings existed so that viewers could tell who was a Bajoran when the camera wasn’t close enough to see the nose ridges. They were just clip-ons, right?
@29: Well, the earring was introduced as a plot point in “Ensign Ro,” to establish Ro’s nonconformism and give Riker a reason to see her as insubordinate. Riker’s concession at the end that she could wear her earring after all showed that he’d come to accept her, and maybe to recognize that it was a cultural statement rather than an act of defiance. (He never seemed to object to Worf’s baldric.) So the continued use of Bajoran earrings later on was just keeping continuity with “Ensign Ro.”
And yes, they were clip-ons.
I’ve always noticed that Ro wore the earring on the wrong ear. I don’t recall ever seeing some sort of in-universe explanation for that. I just always assumed DS9’s costume designer and Nana Visitor both made a earring mistake that nobody bothered to correct. I’m surprised with the whole religious defiance angle brought up in these comments, but it makes sense as far as Ro Laren is concerned.
@31: Looking over screencaps from “Ensign Ro,” it appears that female Bajora (as they were called at the time) wore their earrings on the left ear, while male Bajora wore theirs on the right ear. I guess the DS9 producers either forgot about the gender differentiation or chose to abandon it.
@26 Krad – I recall in the TNG episode where Geordi and Ro are “phased” into ghosts, the episode ends with Ro’s “humility” speech stating something to the effect of not really believing what she was told about the afterlife, or some such… Am I remembering wrong? Seems like that at least implied some non-religiousness in Ro.
Late to the party, as usual, but I’ll just pipe in and say that I had the same thought as Rancho @18 – I didn’t see a huge reason that Odo COULDN’T go to the services. I’ve had many friends attend Catholic Mass with me even though they aren’t Catholic (and in some cases, not Christian), simply because they wanted to attend with me – either out of curiosity, or just because they were visiting and knew it was an important thing to me and so wanted to join me. The only main difference is that non-Catholics aren’t supposed to take communion. Unless the Bajoran religion is different (and Kai Winns aside, they don’t seem that uptight about stuff like this), it seems they would welcome anybody who was interested.
Although I can also understand that Odo may be the type who would not want to attend unless he truly believe.
As for the comment itself, I really didn’t find it offensive or like he was demeaning her beliefs. Although I’ll admit that in my own romantic journeying, I was pretty strict about only dating somebody within my faith. Not everybody feels this way and it’s not a requirement (and cross-faith relationships can be successful) but for me it was integral enough to my life (and what I wanted the goals of marriage and future family life to be) that I don’t think I would feel truly fulfilled in a relationship unless I knew my spouse was on the same wavelength and that we were on the journey together. I got lots of flak for this decision in high school and college but in the end I don’t regret it – everybody has their idea of what they want marriage to be and what fulfills them in a relationship, and for me, being able to participate meaningfully in religious rituals together was a huge part of it. (And I feel like I should add, even though it should go without saying, that I don’t see ‘good person’ or ‘compatible with me’ as mutually exclusive with ‘shares my religion’…nor does ‘shares my religion’ automatically gaurantee ‘good person’ or ‘compatible with me’.)
Regarding Ro: I’m pretty sure I remember her mentioning she doesn’t really believe the Bajoran faith (or at least that she was agnostic about it) in the episode where they ‘died’.
You know, I usually watch two or three episodes of DS9 a day, usually on Netflix on my phone in bed. This episode took me three days to watch. I kept stopping it because I got angry (when I get angry in bed, only My name is Earl can calm me down.) I know from reading these boards that a lot of you have very deep held spiritual beliefs and I was interested to see what you would all think of this episode. I am on the other side of the fence where I am not a believer of things and was looking forward to getting a better glimpse into what the general faith-based populace would have to say on cultish behavior. I was not disappointed. I did a lot of reading on cults the past few days and gained quite a bit of insight, to the cult mind.
This episode upset me because I just could not get over the fact that people would believe any of this pah-wraith nonsense. And the more research I did, the more I learned that these were people in the traditional cult mentality that were just broken, be it from bad family life, an occupation or whatever and NEEDED something to make sense of their lives. Really scary stuff. Probably a lot more at the time when this was written with Heaven’s gate and all that. The more I read into it, the more society as a whole really began to scare me.
@@@@@ #5: Probably because people have to walk through air locks every time they board a ship . . . That is why air locks are there. Your idea has merit though, the sensor would just have to also note that there is no ship on the docking side.
Dr Mora and his assistant did not wear earrings in the first episode where we saw them (I don’t remember episode titles, sorry). I posted that I thought it probably was a subtle way for the costume designers to show us that they were atheistic scientists. CLB disagreed with me and thought they’d just forgotten to include the earrings in the costumes. I didn’t see how this could be the case since we see all those background Bajorans with their earrings. But in the episode with the baby changeling, Dr Mora was wearing quite a large earring so I guess CLB was right. Too bad, I thought it was a nicely subtle way of telling us something about a character.
You can be an atheist and still wear traditional items of your culture’s religion. That kind of symbols become cultural rather than religious.
Good point MaGnUs. The series seems to imply that all Bajorans were religious, though Ro Laren didn’t seem to be. Several people have complained about how all of a particular race seemed to be the same — same clothes, same attitudes, same religion. The earrings seemed to be a part of that to me which was why I was surprised that Dr Mora didn’t wear one in that first episode and actually disappointed that he did in the second episode.
I never got the impression that the entire Bajoran species was religious. A lot of them, sure, but not all of them.
As a stand alone, “Covenant” is not a bad episode. But I’ve always been disappointed by the series’ inability to portray both the Prophets and the Pah’Wraiths in an ambiguous manner. For some reason, this reminded me of the Vorlons and Shadows story arc from “Babylon 5”. But although the two aliens started out as good guy/bad guy, the arc featuring the two aliens ended in a more ambiguous manner. I feel as if “Star Trek Deep Space Nine” had failed in this regard on so many levels.
And that is why I have such a problem with this uber regard of the series. It had the potential to be the franchise’s best series. But for some reason, it always ended up falling short, being a second-rate copycat of “Babylon 5”. Every time “Deep Space Nine” tries to inject ambiguity to the series, it always takes a step back. The worst example was Gul Dukat’s story arc from Seasons Six and Seven. The series was slowly developing Dukat as an ambiguous character . . . until early Season Six, when his daughter was killed by Damar. In the Season Six episode, “Waltz”, it was plainly obvious that Ziyal’s death had undermined Dukat’s sanity. Instead of acknowledging this, Deep Space Nine’s commander, Benjamin Sisko had declared him as “evil”. And this episode reminds me of the numerous ones regarding Kira Nerys and the past Bajor/Cardassia conflict from the past. Only, this episode had failed to be as ambiguous as it could have been. I suspect that this lack of ambiguity was used to maintain Sisko’s judgement of Dukat as “evil” and the Pai-Wraiths as the Big Bad.
@41 interesting perspective, and I agree about the disappointment of seeing Dukat revert to a one-dimensional baddie. But overall, I thought the series had some of the more compellingly ambiguous characters. Garak is probably my most favorite non lead character in any Trek series.
What I found so problematic about DS9 was the self-righteous hypocrisy of so many of the main characters. Sisko going rogue, for example, in Pale Moonlight, rubbed me entirely the wrong way. Unilaterally took it upon himself to try and bring an entire race into a interplanetary war based upon a flat out lie, and really the only thing he accomplished was to get a few beings killed.
Kira was a terrorist who intentionally targeted innocents, yet had the nerve to look down her nose at Odo for his questionable policeman’s tactics during the occupation of Bajor. In another case, she put herself at serious risk while carrying a child belonging to friends, for the sake of revenge, and it was only through sheer dumb luck and timely scriptwriting that she survived. Odo, for his part, despite his newfound straight-laced ethics, had no problem essentially wiping out the existence of thousands of people because he had the hots for Kira.
Bashir is kind of a worm throughout the whole series, no more so than when he openly roots for Dax and Worf’s marriage to fail so he can swoop in and try and get some.
I guess I shouldn’t complain, as the irony is I’ve always appreciated multifaceted characters with the flaws of ordinary people. But for some reason the way DS9 was written, the characters rarely have any self-awareness about themselves. I guess Sisko did in the example I mentioned, but he seems to be more upset about his scheme not succeeding than the moral implications of his actions. And to be honest I’m just not a big Avery Brooks fan, and I think my mild dislike for the character is at least partly due to his awkward and mistimed mannerisms.
As for Garak. He was reprehensible, but he had a code of dishonor that he followed, and he never tried to convince himself, or others, that there was any shred of decency about him.
I’ve always said DS9 is the most impressive of all the Trek series in terms of writing, complexity of plot, and provoking thought. But I have no desire to ever watch it again.
I’m not sure how you came to this conclusion, since the scheme DID SUCEED. His goal was to bring the Romulans into the war and the Romulans came into the war. His angst was entirely about the moral compromises and failings he fell into to achieve the goal.
Lockdown rewatch.. sigh ….. it’s so close to it being proper Dukat but isn’t that’s so frustrating, Dukat one of the great TV villains should have died in Waltz.. and we still have the closing arc nonsense to come.
After Kira is taken to Jones Town.. sorry Empok Nor, there is some good stuff in the by play with Nana Vistor and Marc Alaimo but the rest of the story is utterly predictable, If you didn’t guess the pregnant woman was going to be pregnant with Dukat’s baby and that he was going to try and kill her to shut her up you have been watching the wrong show. The only thing I really like is once again praise for the set dresses who always make the same set believable as Another location when used as Empok Nor.
Very late to the party, but just caught this one on my quarantine rewatch. Does it really seem in the least bit credible that Odo, who is actually a god who routinely mocks his followers’ faith in his godhood, would feel the least bit troubled at not being able to feel faith himself?
@45/Barry: “Actually a god?” No, he’s a member of a species that programmed its slave races to worship them as if they were gods. In no way does the word “actual” apply there.
Anyway, Odo’s regret at not having religious faith was about wanting to be able to share that part of Kira’s life with her. It wasn’t just about himself.
He’s as much a god as the wormhole aliens, no? What makes a god, as far back in Trek lore as “Who Mourns for Adonais?”, is the faith of their followers. Apollo gives up his godhood in that episode because humans have outgrown their faith in the old gods. He still has his godlike powers, but without worshippers, he’s nothing.
Odo mocks the very concept of faith in his every interaction with Weyoun. I’d probably have to go back and pay more attention to see if he interacts with any of the other Vorta who have been introduced in the show. Now, if he has a change of heart in subsequent episodes, and shows some respect for faith, i might be able to take this more seriously. But the idea that he respects Kira’s faith enough to want to share it, while simultaneously laughing at the faith placed in him by the Vorta, stretches credulity.
@47/Barry: “He’s as much a god as the wormhole aliens, no? What makes a god, as far back in Trek lore as “Who Mourns for Adonais?”, is the faith of their followers.”
Apollo was an alien who was mistaken for a god by primitive humans. It’s ridiculous to equate that with literal divinity. Was Landru or Vaal an “actual” god? Is Kirk an actual god because of “The Paradise Syndrome?” Is Picard an actual god because of “Who Watches the Watchers?” Belief does not make something true.
I actually liked the post-“Waltz” version of Dukat, where he’s stripped of all of his self-deception, fully embraced what a bastard he is, and come to live only for revenge. Having him find religion (and a new means of excusing his crimes on Bajor) seems like a step back from that.
I loved Kira’s notion at the beginning of the episode in which the hypothetical scenario of Odo believing in a different faith than her would not bother her in the least if he was getting something out of it.