"When I first met you Major, I thought you were hostile and arrogant. But I was wrong. Bajor needs you. I need you. I like you, and I don't want you to be hurt
(But I still want you to give the old duffer his marching orders anyway!)"
Sisko and Kira have a good ole Trek heart to heart. (And indeed have something nice to say about each other for once in the first season!)
This drug cake. Will my Shatners bassoon really make me think a second lasts a month? Synopsis
The provisional government hands a intransigent Anthony Hopkins lookalike his eviction notice, in order to render a habitable moon he lives on - to waste, in order to tap its power. Obviously the proverb of selling the cow for a handful of beans doesn't translate well in this neck of the woods! Oh and Kira gets all emotional (again.)
Review
I'm a tolerant chap vis a vis poetic licence on the telly. I don't write angry e-mails to George Lucas effusing that are we expected to believe that the Death Star laser, that can blow a planet up in a millisecond; won't harm a man stood two feet away from it, just because he is shielding his face with his hands. I don't really subscribe to the notion that ultra scientific accuracy should trump, or even be at the expense of entertainment for a soft sci-fi show or film. However there are occasions when something is so strikingly silly, it does affect the viewing experience (but not in this case the viewer enjoyment.). The plot of this episode revolves around a moon (called Jerrado) of Bajor that is going to have its core tapped to generate much needed power on Bajors surface. Firstly how are they going to transfer this power to Bajor to utilise it? Geothermal energy from the hot interior of a world is a feasible source of power, but you tend to have to be on the same bloody planet to feel the benefits! Are they going to build a huge pipe to transport the energy or something? Secondly the moon is inhabitable. This brings up two issues. Why has everybody just ignored this place? Kira says only a measly 47 Bajorans lived there at all. Bajor is said to be on its ecological arse after the occupation. Why are the Bajorans not queuing to settle the fertile virgin lands of Jerrado? The Bajorans have had spaceflight for a couple of centuries, why did they not settle it beforehand (If our moon was a class M planet, I guarantee it would at least have a manned science outpost, and most likely a colony too and we've only been in space a few decades.) Why did the Cardassians not make use of Jerrado as well? Mullibok implies he sat the occupation out up here. As I said this doesn't really temper my enjoyment of this episode, but it is a big oversight on the part of the writers. Perhaps if Mullibok had lived like an asteroid hermit off the game "Elite" that was made of unobtanium the Bajorans needed, and they were going to grind up for energy, then it would have made more logical sense in that regard. Never mind though, and on with the review.
As we said before the Bajorans are going to extract energy from the core of Jerrado, and this will render the moon uninhabitable. Kira and Dax are doing one last orbital survey to make sure the moon has been totally vacated before drilling starts. They discover 3 people who aren't part of the survey team, upon beaming down Kira is surrounded by two pitchfork wielding yokels outside of a cottage on the surface. The owner of the cottage; a farmer called Mullibok (who looks uncannily like Anthony Hopkins, but not from Wales though) - tells his friends to stand down. Kira tells him he has to leave as they will all be killed by the core being tapped, but he refuses saying he had enough shit of Cardassian bullies, let alone Bajoran ones. Kira tries pithy good cop tactics to win him over to her side (which shows us a new side of Kiras personality.), but Mullibok counters by using stalling tactics by inviting her in for a supper that will take hours to actually prepare. He spins tall tales about his past and says he has lived on Jerrado for 40 years and will die if he is forced to leave his home. He tries to bait Kira into storming off by patronising her with sexist comments , but in a nice scene, she twigs on to what he is doing before almost falling for it.
Kira decides to try to convince the minister in charge of the operation to postpone it so she can convince Mullibok to vacate Jerrado, but he refuses and says that he wont put off for three people, and if Mullibok won't leave of his violation, he'll have them beamed up without their concent. Kira realises that this tactic will likely do the old geezer in, so she decides to lead an armed team to perform a forced eviction. It predictably goes tits up after about three seconds, and Mullibok goes mental at the guards which gets him shot in the process.
Kira who had (surprise surprise) got emotionally involved with the charismatic farmers plight, disobeys orders (surprise surprise) and offers to nurse him back to health. She tells him about an old ugly tree that used to stand near where she lived as a kid. That she hated that tree for it being a big bastard that blocked all the sunlight and sucked all the nutrients away with its gnarled roots. But she couldn't bring herself to chop the thing down for some reason. It is sort of a metaphor for Mullibok too, and for Kira's (and ours) view of his plight. His behaviour is on some level self centred. He claims no to care that his intransigence will mean lots of his people will do with out. And even that he sat out the occupation on Jerrado and turned his back on his race. But despite all that, and down to Brien Keith's brilliant protrayal of him, we still feel some sympathy for his plight. That the needs of the many may outweigh the needs of the few, but it may not always feel like that if you are emotionally invested to the few who are on the receiving end. Sisko himself now turns up on Jerrado. He says that she won't be sacked for what she has done. This is really a turning point for the Kira and Sisko relationship. They were essentially adversarial at the beginning. In "Past Prologue" he threatened she was through if she ever went behind his back ever agin. But here he confesses that he was wrong about his initial assessment of her (see the quote above) her, and that Bajor needs people like her. That she is on the other side now, and can't just always instinctively side with the underdog in every single issue. She must fight for Bajor in other ways, ways she may not like. She has a job to do here, and she must do it.
It is brought up of course, that the forced relocation is really no different to how the Cardassians behaved during the occupation. This is not really the case. The relocation is unpleasant for the ones being moved (as it is for anything like this.), and there ain't any getting away from the fact that an old man is being made homeless, and that is by definition a horrible thing to have to do. But Kira's and the Bajorans first response to Mullibok was to persuade him to move personally. That he would be recompensed for the move. they could have beamed him up when he was knocked out during the fight, but they didn't. Kira used force only as a last resort. The Cardassians used force as a matter of principle. If they had wanted to vacate Jerrado for this purpose, they would have gone down there and shot the three of them as soon as they resisted. They may possibly have shoved them all into a labour camp. They certainly wouldn't have offered to nurse him back to health, and have used metaphors about gnarled trees.
Mullibok still won't budge and says everything he has is on this moon and that he will go with it. Kira realises that he means what he says, that he wail not leave whilst the cottage is standing. So she will have to bring it down herself. She takes a lit splint from the kiln he has finished building and torches the cottages. He now has nothing to stay for anymore. He has no option but to silently beam up with Kira, spurning her attempt at a reconcilliation.
Before I finish the review there was a B plot in this episode, about Jake and Nog buying some self sealing stem bolts (we never find out what they do, which becomes a running gag.) and trading them for land as the Noh-Jay consortium. It is hard to see any greater point this stuff is supposed to be about than providing filler showing the friendship of these two. But it is a case of one of those B plots that has nothing to do with the A plot, and actually being diametrically opposite in tempo to the main plot (this is a light hearted subplot to a serious main one.), which gives the whole episode an odd and clashing momentum at times.
Mistakes and Questions
Jerrado is the fifth moon of Bajor. Didn't Jake say that Bajor had three moons in "The Nagus"
Dax says that she thinks Morns facial hair makes him cute, and that she entertained going out on a date with him. I thought Trills were above such petty things as romance and relationships? You said it yourself love!
Mullibok says he was the first person to settle here (admittedly the tales of his past antics seem distinctly tall ones at that!) on Jerrado. Again, why did everyone ignore this moon. Did the prophets say it was out of bounds or something?
Kira tells her two armed guards that the trio don't react well to uniformed; armed soldiers. So it makes sense she walks into a tense situation with two conspicuously uniformed and armed soldiers. A bit of subtlety next time?!
Bashir says that Mullibok should be transported to DS9 when he is wounded by the shooting. I may not be 100% accurate, but isn't Bajor itself closer [to Jerrado] if you need to get someone urgent treatment?
Betty's Thought for the Day
The transmitted version of "Progress" diverged from the original intent of Peter Allan Fields (the writer) script. Allan Fields wanted Mullibok to be a less sympathetic and more ruthless character than the way he was performed by Brian Keith. Keith is extremely charismatic and likeable in the role. The original intention was to emphasise that Mulliboks seeming affection for Kira was purely superficial. That when he calls her by her first name he was blatantly trying to manipulate her, that he knew she was so easy to emotionally lead by the nose. The scenes where Mullibok seems pretty indifferent about Bajors plight, and the implication he shirked the occupation on his moon are perhaps left in remnants of this darker vision of how the character himself was originally conceived; that were transmitted in the final product. It is hard to say whether this portrayal would have altered the episode for the better (it would have made Kiras actions less ambiguous I suppose.). But Allan Fields desire to break a stereotype (the telly curmudgeonly old dude is really a sweet guy once you get to know him) is indicative of the DS9 writers willingness to shake the rules up in a way the later shows wouldn't.
Summary
Progress would seem at first glance to be rather a quiet episode. It is certainly short on things like action. But the episode does mark another turning point in Kiras character growth, where yet again she has to (admittedly not entirely successfully) suppress her instinctive desire to side with the underdog in order to fulfil her new and broader responsibilities to her people (however much she isn't comfortable with it), and a step away from being at loggerheads with Sisko and them both evolving a more amicable relationship with each other. The episode is a strong character peice (Keith, Brooks and Visitor all put in sparkling performances) with a nice bit of soul searching that doesn't veer into saccharine schmuck. If the episode has a flaw, it is the B plot that doesn't compliment the A one at all, and actually contrasts badly with it in its tone, which gives the episode some very odd pacing at times. But apart from that this is good stuff.
Rating 8 / 10
Next Time If wishes were horses..... I'd rather be reviewing an episode like "The Visitor" probably
No comments:
Post a Comment