The Bajoran government is planning to tap the molten core of one of its moons and transfer the energy to the planet to heat homes for the winter, but a stubborn old settler on the moon named Mullibok refuses to vacate. Kira tries and fails to convince him to leave, forcing her to choose between her duty and doing what is right.
This is classic moral dilemma Trek episode. A lot of time is spent (basically the entire episode) building a bond between Kira and Mullibok and much is made of her emotional turmoil, but essentially she is forced to choose between her duty and doing the right thing. It doesn't matter how many people the tap will help, the government has no right to forcefully relocate somebody who doesn't want to leave their home and their property. It's essentially the same thing as ethnic cleansing, even if ethnicity isn't involved. And even if it's just one person, it's still evil. As Picard asks in his legendary mini speech from Insurrection, "HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE, ADMIRAL?"
However, unlike Picard, Kira makes the utilitarian choice in the end. This could be an indication of DS9's more morally gray tone compared to TNG, but I think it has more to do with the way sci fi writers insist on writing women. I think they are afraid that if Kira made the right choice and refused to allow Mullibok to be forcefully relocated, that it would be seen as her being controlled by her emotions. In order to avoid being accused of sexism, the writers have her make the choice that is seen as being more rational, even though it is wrong. The same thing consistently happens on Voyager, where Janeway almost always makes the utilitarian choice rather than the one that protects individuals' rights and dignity. I believe this is due to the politically correct forces in Hollywood and it's extremely disappointing because it does a great disservice to the women on these shows. It's truly ironic that political correctness has the consequence of writers not being allowed to write good, complex female characters.
Then again, an argument can be made that the utilitarian choice is the only correct one according to Federation ethics. The Federation is essentially a socialist utopia (at least as presented by Roddenberry—DS9 ironically does a ton to subvert that notion). Socialism is a system of government for which trampling on the rights of individuals for the "common good" is a core tenant, so maybe all the times that Picard chooses to protect the rights of individuals over the collective utilitarian good is actually "wrong" by Federation ethical standards and Janeway is actually correct. That still doesn't explain Kira's choice in this ep, though, since she isn't part of the Federation. Not only is her choice wrong, but it is completely out of character for her and that is why I believe her actions were written the way they were in order to avoid accusations of sexism, rather than in service of the character and the story.
THE GOOD
- Mullibok is an interesting and charismatic character. He's equal parts frustrating and endearing. I think he is selfish and his decision not to leave is completely dictated by his fear of...basically everything. He is ruled by his fear. But I also respect him standing his ground against the government and feel bad for him with the way the ep ends.
- The moral dilemma is thought-provoking (obviously, considering I just wrote a mini essay on it...).
THE BAD
- Kira-centric ep. She's actually not terrible here, but she's also not great.
- The plot moves very slowly. It's a character-focused story and Brian Keith as Mullibok more than carries his weight, but Visitor lacks the charisma or acting chops to make such a slow story hold your interest completely.
- The B plot with the kids is not interesting. Also this is the third time in four eps that Jake and Nog have been featured in the B plot. It's getting pretty old. Give Dax something to do for once instead, please.
- Kira's choice at the end is very disappointing.
THE UGLY
- Runabout used: Ganges. No sensor module again, so it must really be removable.
- The kids not being able to figure out what a self-sealing stem bolt is is silly. I guess DS9 doesn't have the internet?
- It's fascinating that Bajor has a moon capable of supporting a breathable atmosphere. For a class M planet to have a moon massive enough to also hold that kind of an atmosphere, the moon would have to be pretty close to the same size as the planet. In fact, the planet and the moon would most likely be orbiting each other, much like Pluto and its moon Charon do. Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, so it's possible Bajor and Jerrado are as well, which would eliminate the possibility of destructive tidal forces that would otherwise be a consequence of such a massive moon, and also make an energy tap much easier, since the same point on Bajor is always aligned with the same point on Jerrado.
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