DS9 Flashback: The Maquis, Part II

In "The Maquis, Part I," Deep Space Nine managed to do compelling things with its own characters even as it pursued the primary agenda of setting up Star Trek: Voyager. This careful balancing act continued in "The Maquis, Part II."

Sisko's longtime friend Cal Hudson has turned his back on Starfleet to side with a rebel faction against the Cardassian Empire. Torn between duty and friendship, Sisko tries to bring a peaceful resolution to a worsening situation. But his own position is challenged at every step of the way: there's truth to the rebels' accusations against the Cardassians, and rescuing a captured Dukat is hardly something he's eager to be doing.

Many Deep Space Nine staff writers regard this two-part episode as a key moment in the growth of the show. The Next Generation had set up a utopian vision of life on Earth and aboard the Enterprise, but the feeling was that such creature comforts could only realistically extend so far. Writer Ira Steven Behr noted that for years, he'd been waiting to use the line "it's easy to be a saint in paradise" in a Star Trek episode. Here he finally got to do it, as Sisko sympathizes with the struggles of Federation citizens near the Cardassian border. Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe extended the sentiment even more, to this series itself, noting "it's easy to be a saint on the Enterprise, but it's a little bit harder to be a saint on DS9."

To help play up this contrast between the two then-running Star Trek series, the writers brought in a recurring admiral character from The Next Generation, Nechayev, to chastise Sisko for his handling of the situation. She thinks the Maquis can just be made to see reason, as simple as that. She really has no understanding or empathy for what life is really like so far from the heart of the Federation.

All this is a great setup for conflict, but it isn't paid off especially well in this episode. Sisko and Hudson talk past each other a lot. Each is impervious to the other's arguments, never giving an inch, so the entire hour feels like it's just marking time until they have a final clash. And then, they sort of don't. There's a bit of a dogfight between small ships at the end of the episode, but then Sisko just lets Hudson slip away -- and we never see him on the series again. It's not much of a reckoning.

This was apparently not the ending Ira Steven Behr wanted. His plan had been to kill off Hudson at the end of the story, a conclusion that show runner Michael Piller pulled rank on and changed. Reportedly, when Piller saw the finished episode, he decided Behr had been right, but it was too late to do anything. Nor could the writers later take advantage of the choice by continuing the Hudson storyline later; actor Bernie Casey apparently wasn't all that into Star Trek, deciding to take this role because he wanted to work with Avery Brooks. It seems as though once that box had been checked, he had no interest in returning to the show.

The story arc as a whole may be a bit flat, but there are some interesting character moments all the same. Quark, thrown in a holding cell with the Vulcan rebel Sakonna, manages to "out-logic" her on the relative costs of war and peace. (He fares better than Odo, who earlier gets a laugh noting the difficulty of interrogating a Vulcan.) Kira and Sisko each have a good moment when debating whether to mount a rescue for Gul Dukat; she's happy to let him rot, while Sisko notes that the Central Command leaving him for dead is reason enough to want him alive.

The writing of Dukat is a bit hit-and-miss in the episode. It seems arbitrary and silly that he's immune to a Vulcan mindmeld by pure mental discipline. But he lands a valid point when he mocks the Maquis for being too soft and Federation-minded in their reluctance to treat him harshly. On the bad side, seeds of a gross romantic pursuit of Kira are planted here, an ill-advised story line the writers would hang onto for years (and which Nana Visitor resisted as much as she could, saying that to Kira, Dukat will always be Hitler and that would never change). But on the good side, Dukat's explanation of Cardassian justice, casually thrown in here, becomes the basis of an entire episode before the season is done. (The verdict is always guilty. Trials are entertainment for the masses.)

Other observations:

• Though Dukat was scoring the better verbal jabs on Sisko in the first half of this two-parter, Sisko catches up here. He thoroughly enjoys telling Dukat that he's been left for dead by his superiors. And when Dukat thanks him for the rescue, Sisko replies with a smirk "I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

• When Odo comes after Quark, the Ferengi flips almost immediately on Sakonna. You would think Quark couldn't do this sort of thing very often before criminals stop coming to him to do business.

• It's a small part, but Star Trek veteran John Schuck shows up as the Cardassian Legate Parn. (He played the Klingon ambassador in Star Treks IV and VI.)

While there are fun character moments sprinkled throughout this episode, there isn't a lot of tension in the story itself. I give "The Maquis, Part II" a B-. I do think the writers are right: this was a key moment in the emerging identity of the series, a necessary step toward the great things that would come later. But it's something of a tenuous, shaky step.