4.5 stars.
Brief Synopsis: Three years after his wife died at the hands of the Borg and following the Cardassian withdrawal from the planet Bajor, Commander Benjamin Sisko and a new crew of Starfleet and Bajoran officers take command of an abandoned Cardassian space station and make an incredible discovery that will change the galaxy and Sisko's future.
Comments:
This was a power packed series premiere. The opening sequence is the famous battle at Wolf 359 vs the Borg, and Sisko has to watch his wife die before his very own eyes, while saving his son Jake. This is one of the few reminders that while Starfleet stories we have enjoyed via Star Trek are those of exploration and first contacts, at its heart Starfleet is basically a military organization. Here we see armed ships in space fighting an alien threat and Starfleet is basically Federation's space armed forces.
This was also in my thoughts as the story continued with Sisko taking in charge of Deep Space 9 for Federation. Even though Deep Space 9 was now a Bajoran property, they wanted Starfleet to administer it, presumably to align themselves with the Federation (and thus stave off the Cardassians). While that was fine, why is a military organization taking over a civilian spaceport? Thinking back, I realized that many of the deep space 9 ports in Star Trek history were always administered by Starfleet. Is it because these were Starfleet bases (which can't be because civilian ships were docking there, not just Starfleet)? So unlike today's airports for example, which are operated by civilian authorities, in the Star Trek future the space ports and shipyards and others are always operated by Starfleet.
It's interesting because it sort of implies that while we have an utopia (Gene Roddenberry's creation) in Earth, some of the civilian infrastructure has been handed over to a military institution. The US Army has heavily influenced Star Trek's Starfleet structure (from the class of the ships to command structure) so are they saying the US Army will have a bigger role to play in the nation's future? Perhaps under President Trump, that's not a far off possibility.
I thought the scenes of Bajor being in disarray (and by extension Deep Space 9) was very realistic. It reminds one of the chaos in Afghanistan following the Russian retreat, and the disorder in present day Libya after the fall of Gaddafi. It also reminds one of what a fantastic job some transitional leaders (such as Mandela) had done. What is needed after an occupying force leaves is another strong figure the population can follow. This is why Bangladesh and India who had Mujeeb and Nehru for some time after independence, did well while Pakistan suffered with the early death of Jinnah.
The meeting between Sisko and Picard was interesting, if only for the barely disguised hostility on Sisko's part as he meets the man he holds responsible for his wife's death. Religion enters the story for the first time as Sisko meets with the Bajoran Pope - the Kai, and then Sisko has a vision courtesy the Orb. More on my thoughts later, but first let me go to this one particular scene.
Miles is going to take up a new job on Deep Space 9, and is leaving the Enterprise. He wanted to say goodbye to the Captain, but decides otherwise. Yet Captain Picard personally comes down and wishes him well and has a few words with him. This clearly means a lot to Miles.
Picard displays one of those traits of successful leaders. They make the people under them think that they matter to him, and they genuinely care about these staff members. People who served under President Obama, for example, were genuinely fond of him and would walk on fire for him, because he took the time to learn about them and stand up for them. If you remember a famous description of the Companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), by a visiting Makkan, that he has been to the courts of the Caesar and the Najjashi, but he has not seen people so devoted to their leader like the Muslims. This is what good leaders inspire among their people, and it's because these leaders care.
Back to Bajor's religion. Once Sisko and Dax discover the wormhole, Sisko has a communication / vision / religious experience with the wormhole's resident aliens who are worshiped as Gods / Prophets on Bajor (hence the Emissary).
I thought the communication with the wormhole aliens took up a bit too long in the episodes. It is clearly important, and it also emphasizes to Sisko that he has to let the memory of his dead wife go, but it actually didn't need to be that long. It's also interesting, religiously speaking, to think about aliens who do not live in Time like us humans.
From an Islamic perspective, Time is God's creation, and we live in it and God isn't bound to it. We also know that God, in addition to being a Creator, is also Continuously Creating, so He could make aliens that do not live in Time like us. We also know for sure that there are beings of energy (not matter) living with us right now, called the Jinns, AND that some people used to worship the Jinns. So the concept of these aliens living outside of Time and being worshiped by the Bajorans isn't that far fetched. This just shows to me that while other religions have a problem with science (indeed the future as depicted in Star Trek the Federation isn't very religious - almost all humans are atheists) but the traditional friction between science and religion as it occurs in Western history isn't the Islamic experience.
The final scenes of the episode show Sisko taking charge of Deep Space 9 by the wormhole, which will help Bajor become a major commercial stopover point. Picard is back. and this time Sisko is far more cordial, having moved on from his wife's death.
Over all this was a brilliant two part beginning to a new series. The potential for Deep Space 9 had been raised quite high, and the writers seem prepared to take on the TNG world and take it somewhere new.
Brief Synopsis: Three years after his wife died at the hands of the Borg and following the Cardassian withdrawal from the planet Bajor, Commander Benjamin Sisko and a new crew of Starfleet and Bajoran officers take command of an abandoned Cardassian space station and make an incredible discovery that will change the galaxy and Sisko's future.
Comments:
This was a power packed series premiere. The opening sequence is the famous battle at Wolf 359 vs the Borg, and Sisko has to watch his wife die before his very own eyes, while saving his son Jake. This is one of the few reminders that while Starfleet stories we have enjoyed via Star Trek are those of exploration and first contacts, at its heart Starfleet is basically a military organization. Here we see armed ships in space fighting an alien threat and Starfleet is basically Federation's space armed forces.
This was also in my thoughts as the story continued with Sisko taking in charge of Deep Space 9 for Federation. Even though Deep Space 9 was now a Bajoran property, they wanted Starfleet to administer it, presumably to align themselves with the Federation (and thus stave off the Cardassians). While that was fine, why is a military organization taking over a civilian spaceport? Thinking back, I realized that many of the deep space 9 ports in Star Trek history were always administered by Starfleet. Is it because these were Starfleet bases (which can't be because civilian ships were docking there, not just Starfleet)? So unlike today's airports for example, which are operated by civilian authorities, in the Star Trek future the space ports and shipyards and others are always operated by Starfleet.
It's interesting because it sort of implies that while we have an utopia (Gene Roddenberry's creation) in Earth, some of the civilian infrastructure has been handed over to a military institution. The US Army has heavily influenced Star Trek's Starfleet structure (from the class of the ships to command structure) so are they saying the US Army will have a bigger role to play in the nation's future? Perhaps under President Trump, that's not a far off possibility.
I thought the scenes of Bajor being in disarray (and by extension Deep Space 9) was very realistic. It reminds one of the chaos in Afghanistan following the Russian retreat, and the disorder in present day Libya after the fall of Gaddafi. It also reminds one of what a fantastic job some transitional leaders (such as Mandela) had done. What is needed after an occupying force leaves is another strong figure the population can follow. This is why Bangladesh and India who had Mujeeb and Nehru for some time after independence, did well while Pakistan suffered with the early death of Jinnah.
The meeting between Sisko and Picard was interesting, if only for the barely disguised hostility on Sisko's part as he meets the man he holds responsible for his wife's death. Religion enters the story for the first time as Sisko meets with the Bajoran Pope - the Kai, and then Sisko has a vision courtesy the Orb. More on my thoughts later, but first let me go to this one particular scene.
Miles is going to take up a new job on Deep Space 9, and is leaving the Enterprise. He wanted to say goodbye to the Captain, but decides otherwise. Yet Captain Picard personally comes down and wishes him well and has a few words with him. This clearly means a lot to Miles.
Picard displays one of those traits of successful leaders. They make the people under them think that they matter to him, and they genuinely care about these staff members. People who served under President Obama, for example, were genuinely fond of him and would walk on fire for him, because he took the time to learn about them and stand up for them. If you remember a famous description of the Companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), by a visiting Makkan, that he has been to the courts of the Caesar and the Najjashi, but he has not seen people so devoted to their leader like the Muslims. This is what good leaders inspire among their people, and it's because these leaders care.
Back to Bajor's religion. Once Sisko and Dax discover the wormhole, Sisko has a communication / vision / religious experience with the wormhole's resident aliens who are worshiped as Gods / Prophets on Bajor (hence the Emissary).
I thought the communication with the wormhole aliens took up a bit too long in the episodes. It is clearly important, and it also emphasizes to Sisko that he has to let the memory of his dead wife go, but it actually didn't need to be that long. It's also interesting, religiously speaking, to think about aliens who do not live in Time like us humans.
From an Islamic perspective, Time is God's creation, and we live in it and God isn't bound to it. We also know that God, in addition to being a Creator, is also Continuously Creating, so He could make aliens that do not live in Time like us. We also know for sure that there are beings of energy (not matter) living with us right now, called the Jinns, AND that some people used to worship the Jinns. So the concept of these aliens living outside of Time and being worshiped by the Bajorans isn't that far fetched. This just shows to me that while other religions have a problem with science (indeed the future as depicted in Star Trek the Federation isn't very religious - almost all humans are atheists) but the traditional friction between science and religion as it occurs in Western history isn't the Islamic experience.
The final scenes of the episode show Sisko taking charge of Deep Space 9 by the wormhole, which will help Bajor become a major commercial stopover point. Picard is back. and this time Sisko is far more cordial, having moved on from his wife's death.
Over all this was a brilliant two part beginning to a new series. The potential for Deep Space 9 had been raised quite high, and the writers seem prepared to take on the TNG world and take it somewhere new.
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