This weekend, I had the pleasure of dropping by The Pensky Files to discuss one of the more interesting episodes of the third season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Defiant is a gleefully insane episode of Star Trek, in which William Riker’s evil transporter duplicate hijacks the Defiant to lead a mission into the heart of Cardassian territory to expose a government conspiracy that might threaten the security of the entire Alpha Quadrant. Along the way, there’s discussions of terrorism and heroism, of missed family birthdays, and of just how absurd Picard’s log entries must sound when they are read aloud.
It was a pleasure to record with Wes and Clay, diving deep on everything from Riker’s “woman in need of relaxation”-dar to the franchise’s complicated attitude towards the Maquis. You can find more from The Pensky Podcast here, and listen to the podcast by clicking the link or just listening below.
Filed under: Deep Space Nine, Podcasts! | Tagged: defiant, Maquis, podcast, Riker, star trek, star trek: deep space nine, terrorism, tom riker |
Nice to see you on the podcast! Hopefully they bring you back in the future as well.
Thanks Joe! Glad you enjoyed! This was a great pleasure for me, and I would love to be back on if they’ll have me! Fake sideburns and all!
It was interesting to hear you talk on the Penski Podcast (I just finished listening to all of their TNG and TOS podcasts).
It’s fascinating how the show seems to say that terrorism for Bajor seemed justified because they tried to remove a genocidal invader from their lands, while the Maquis was really just born from arrogant entitlement. Kira has more in common with the actual French Maquis Resistance from WWII then the Star Trek Maquis, who seem more akin to those gun militias that defy the government in the US. Because the Maquis didn’t really begin the war with any strategic objectives in mind, they didn’t have the willpower or the foresight to really be able to win a war.
We’ll later see Colonel Tigh engage in terrorism with suicide bombers when the cylons occupy New Caprica in Battlestar Galactica. On the one hand, it’s about the only path of resistance he has left, on the other, he’s not accomplishing anything positive in the long run, killing more humans despite there being so few left. Should he be praised for fighting to bitter end? Or be condemned?
Yep. Deep Space Nine also repeatedly makes the point that the Maquis are too romantic to make convincing terrorists, having grown up with images of freedom fighters in stories like Les Mis, and without the desperation that drives real terrorists to horrific acts. (That said, ISIS has demonstrated that these sorts of middle-class existentially anxious would-be terrorists are far more capable of brutality and horror than Deep Space Nine typically allows. But it’s hard to fault the show for not predicting the particulars of ISIS. It did however, hone in on its recruiting appeal.)