S01.E15: Progress

[BizBuzz]

Stardate: 46844.3 - While overseeing an evacuation mission, Kira must try to persuade a stubborn old farmer to leave his home. (Description via TheTVDB.com)

[Meushell]

The old farmer was both interesting and annoying. The story itself was interesting, but it dragged on. I know Bajor wants to start standing on it's own two feet, but couldn't Starfleet help with the energy crisis? Is destroying good farming land, which they are short on thanks to the Cardassians, really the best option here?

The Jake and Nog subplot seem to be handled better.

"Dirt!"

"Land!"

I am surprised that Nog does not seem to see the value in land. Jake seems to have "better lobes" than Nog.

[Pippin]

I liked Brian Keith a lot, but always had a serious problem with this episode -- destroying an entire living ecosystem for an energy source? 

 

C'mon, Bajorans -- you're supposed to be spiritually evolved!  Don't you have your equivalent of Greenpeace? 

 

Hell, if someone here on earth tried to destroy an entire continent for energy, don't you think people would protest? 

 

I don't care how impoverished the Bajorans are, I think their spirituality and ethics and beliefs re the Prophets would be in conflict with destroying life on such a massive scale.  I could see it if it were just this old dude's farm, but not an entire world.  I think the writers dropped the ball on this one.

 

Edited because clarity is A Good Thing.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Pippin

[Gilmel]

Honestly curious question, why do you think that:

 

their spirituality and ethics and beliefs re the Prophets would be in conflict with destroying life on such a massive scale.

 

Nothing about the Bajoran religion over the course of the show made me think that it's eco-spiritual. And religions can be very pragmatic, especially in a culture rebuilding itself and its identity after an experience such as Bajor had. So, I never found this problematic from a religion perspective.

 

I like this episode, Brian Keith being a large part of that. For me, being from the part of the country I'm from, it reminded of the story of Harry Truman (not the president) who lived on Mt. St. Helens and refused to leave despite being encouraged and ordered to do so as the mountain was getting more and more active. He never did, and his home and (presumably) he were buried by the eruption when it happened. I wouldn't say this is one of my favorite episodes, but it works for me. I think the fact that it's kind of a philosophical play, with really only two characters, helps me enjoy it.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Gilmel

[Bryce Lynch]

I liked this episode a lot. I found the farmer very sympathetic as did Kira obviously. Once again she is torn between being an idealist, freedom fighter and a practical administrator and officer.

I guess some of you have a point about the energy scheme being a little extreme and perhaps unnecessary. Though, Star Fleet seems to give Bajor more moral support than practical aid. The send them a depressed and distracted commander, a few runabouts, and a rookie doctor, to protect them from the Cardassians. I get the sense that if not for Picard's influence they would not even have done that much.

That said, I don't think those details are so important. The idea was to create a situation where we could see that the government had a legitimate interest in evacuating the moon, creating the conflict between the private property rights of those who slaved to tame the land and the "best interests of the majority".

I love how DS9 shows both sides of such issues without being preachy or heavy handed.

[Pippin]

Gimel, apologies for the long delay in replying.

 

I guess I'm assuming the more advanced you are spiritually, the more you respect all forms of life, not just your own species.  Western religions, for example, are slowly coming to understand that it is not just human beings who are important.  I consider this a sign of spiritual growth. 

 

Since we're always being told that the Bajorans are such a spiritual people, I simply assumed that they would have this point of view.  Mind you, several generations of killing and being killed by Cardassians may have set them back a bit.

[iMonrey]

They were really pushing the kid angle back in Season 1 weren't they? The last several episodes have featured the antics of Jake and Nog quite prominently.

What I found interesting is that when Jake and Nog had these self-sealing gizmos and didn't know what they did, and couldn't get any info out of O'Brien, it didn't seem to occur to either of them to ask the computer. I mean, the computer is basically Siri on this show, and today when we don't know something, Googling it is second nature. Yet on this show, 200 years in the future the kids don't seem to have that kind of search engine on hand.

It goes to show how in 1993 the writers were still so far removed from the internet, let alone Google, it never occurred to them how simple it would be for a computer to relay information about virtually anything. Occasionally a character will direct the computer to search its historical archives for information on 20th century minutia, but this is generally done to remind the audience how little they know about us in the 24th century. It's sort of a "cheat" rather than a logical go-to for info.

Edited March 3, 2017 by iMonrey
double post

[legaleagle53]

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

They were really pushing the kid angle back in Season 1 weren't they? The last several episodes have featured the antics of Jake and Nog quite prominently.

What I found interesting is that when Jake and Nog had these self-sealing gizmos and didn't know what they did, and couldn't get any info out of O'Brien, it didn't seem to occur to either of them to ask the computer. I mean, the computer is basically Siri on this show, and today when we don't know something, Googling it is second nature. Yet on this show, 200 years in the future the kids don't seem to have that kind of search engine on hand.

It goes to show how in 1993 the writers were still so far removed from the internet, let alone Google, it never occurred to them how simple it would be for a computer to relay information about virtually anything. Occasionally a character will direct the computer to search its historical archives for information on 20th century minutia, but this is generally done to remind the audience how little they know about us in the 24th century. It's sort of a "cheat" rather than a logical go-to for info.

Three hundred years.  TNG, DS9, and Voyager were all set in the 2360s and 2370s.