DS9 Flashback: The Maquis, Part I

As the second season of Deep Space Nine (and seventh season of The Next Generation) was winding down, Star Trek: Voyager was winding up. Though the fourth Star Trek series was still many months from the air, it was planned out enough to start planting the seeds for it in the shows already on the air. Thus was born a two-part DS9 episode, "The Maquis."

A treaty has been signed between the Federation and Cardassians, but it's a result that has left some unhappy on both sides. Federation colonies have been ceded to Cardassian space, and the inhabitants claim the Cardassians aren't honoring their agreement to leave the colonies alone. A rebel faction, the Maquis, has sprung into action to defend the colonies against a threat the Federation refuses to acknowledge. And when the Maquis destroy a Cardassian freighter at Deep Space Nine (which they claim was running weapons), our heroes are drawn into the conflict. Sisko must work with Gul Dukat to expose the truth. He also finds himself increasingly at odds with Cal Hudson, an old friend who sympathizes with the colonists.

This episode literally would not exist without the need to set up Star Trek: Voyager, and it peppers in a lot of details that would be used in that series' premiere: Gul Evek, the Badlands, and the nature of the colonists' grievance with the Federation. Yet the Maquis -- both this episode, and the concept itself -- works far better here on Deep Space Nine than it ever would on the next Star Trek spinoff. There's an inherent moral ambiguity in guerilla tactics for a noble cause, and Deep Space Nine would become increasingly good at exploring moral ambiguity over the run of the series. Plus, Deep Space Nine would have to live with the reality of the Maquis far longer than Voyager -- where on Voyager, the separate Starfleet and Maquis crew members would basically "make nice" with each other before the end of a shortened first season, Deep Space Nine would be telling compelling stories of the conflict between the two for years to come.

Deep Space Nine was building its own brand here, even as it was jumpstarting Voyager's. This was the first episode to really establish the important rivalry between Sisko and Dukat. That starts off as a slow burn, with Sisko trying to be diplomatic even when Dukat invades his quarters in secret. But Dukat is soon pushing buttons for the mere sport of it -- taunting Sisko with the idea that Cardassians are trained to develop photographic memories, and tossing off backhanded compliments like "joy is vulnerability" and that Sisko is the most joyless human he's ever met. Notably, though, Dukat isn't just the villain here. He seems sincere in claiming the Cardassians aren't running guns in secret, and shocked when he learns he was simply out of the loop. We also learn he has seven children (though being a parent doesn't inherently move the needle on his morality).

Another emerging part of Deep Space Nine's identity is how it sought at times to subvert established Star Trek tropes. We get a Vulcan gun runner named Sakonna, whose sense of logic has led to the conclusion that violence is best course of action. Her scenes with Quark (notably shot with long, unbroken takes) may play mostly for laughs, but there's a very subversive quality to this character that shades our notions of what Vulcans can be.

A lot about this episode remains topical today. The politics of the treaty feel current, as Cal Hudson bemoans the "bad deal" while Sisko argues it involved compromise on both sides. Treatment of enemy combatants is an issue, highlighted when the Cardassians appear to murder a prisoner in their custody. There's a spirited debate on the ideals of security vs. freedom, one that neatly pits Odo and Kira on opposite sides. (He says he could make the station safe if allowed to implement curfews and searches; she notes that it would be like the Cardassians never left Bajor.)

There's solid character work peppered throughout. Kira not only clashes with Odo, she voices an understandable sympathy with the Maquis -- she knows how the Cardassians deal with resistance fighters. There's a lot of development of Sisko, both opposite Dukat and his longtime friend Hudson (the latter to better set up part two of this story). On the lighter side, we hear more of Dax's open tastes in dating -- which makes perfect sense, both in that Dax has changed so often that she of all people should look past appearances, and in that she's lived so long that the conventional is probably boring to her now.

Other observations:

• There's some great model work early in the episode, showing the debris of the sabotaged Cardassian freighter floating around the station...

• ...but the money clearly ran out there. Later, a pitched battle between Maquis and Cardassian ships is depicted only as blips on a screen, narrated by Sisko and Dukat.

• There's a screen-filling array of writing credits on this episode. Presumably, the creators of Voyager all get named for concocting the "story" here -- really, the back story of the coming series.

Though there's a lot to like here, the episode is also, obviously, incomplete. Vestigial tendrils leading to Voyager, and setups not to be paid off until Part II, all add-up to a story with some bloat. I give "The Maquis, Part I" a B.