Plot Synopsis:
When a Cardassian vessel, the Bok'Nor, is destroyed very shortly after departing DS9, the subsequent investigation embroils Sisko in the conflict brewing among the colonists in the newly formed Demilitarized Zone on the Cardassian border. On the urging of Gul Dukat, Sisko travels to the DMZ, where he witnesses a firefight between Cardassian and Federation civilian ships, a battle that results in the destruction of the two Cardassian attack vessels.
Stunned by what he has just seen, Sisko beams down to one of the Federation colonies with Dukat in tow, where he finds his old friend, Cal Hudson, in an argument with a Cardassian representative. Both the Federation citizens and the Cardassians believe the actions of their ships in the above mentioned skirmish were justified. To strengthen his case, the Cardassian attache presents the recorded confession of a man named Samuels, who takes the credit for the destruction of the Bok'Nor. Later that night, Hudson warns Sisko that the Cardassian Central Command is right now arming its colonists in the DMZ and insists that the Federation colonists have a right to defend themselves.
Whilst Sisko and Dukat are uncovering ominous developments in the DMZ, Quark opens up a business relationship with a Vulcan woman named Sakonna - and nearly swallows his teeth when Sakonna asks for a full complement of armaments to be delivered post haste. Clearly, Sakonna is no ordinary Vulcan - a reality that is further confirmed when, after Sisko and Dukat return to the station, Sakonna helps a group of colonists abduct Dukat. After plotting the kidnappers most likely course, Sisko, Bashir and Kira set out in a runabout to rescue their sometimes adversary. Before they depart the station, an anonymous message is received: a group calling itself the Maquis claims responsibility for the bombing of the Bok'Nor and the kidnapping of Dukat.
Sisko and the others follow the trail of the Maquis ship into the Badlands, the Bermuda Triangle of the Cardassian border. They beam down onto a class M asteroid, where Sisko discovers, to his shock, that Cal Hudson is in league with the Maquis. Hudson expresses disappointment that Sisko would side with the Cardassians over him; for his part, Sisko is dismayed that his old friend would embrace retaliation over peace. Their conversation at an impasse, Hudson stuns Sisko and his party and makes his escape.
Back on the station, Admiral Necheyev makes a personal appearance, questioning Sisko's decision to leave Odo in charge of station security and insisting that Sisko "open up a dialogue" with the Maquis, as she is confident the members of the Maquis will listen to reason. After venting to Kira that the Starfleet brass has lost touch with reality (whee!), Sisko hears from Odo that one of Sakonna's accomplices has been apprehended. That accomplice turns out to be Quark, who is quite pliable when questioned, informing Sisko that whatever Sakonna wanted the weapons for, it is likely to go down in matter of days. Sisko and Kira then meet with Legate Parn, who claims that Gul Dukat has been working with a rogue group of Cardassians who are smuggling weapons to their colonists in the DMZ. Neither Sisko nor Kira believe a word Parn says - they take his message as indication that Hudson was right about the Cardassians' treachery.
At a Maquis hideout, Sakonna tries to establish a mind meld with Dukat and fails. Before the Maquis make up their mind as to what to do next, Sisko, Bashir, and Odo intervene. Sisko tries to talk down the terrorists, but Dukat quickly grows impatient and instigates a firefight. The Maquis are arrested - all except Amaros, that is, whom Sisko releases to convey a message to Hudson that there is still time to settle things peacefully.
Back on DS9, Sisko informs Dukat that the Central Command has singled him out to be the scapegoat for this whole fiasco; sobered, Dukat offers to help Sisko stop the shipments of weapons into the DMZ if Sisko will help him stop the Maquis. Working together, Sisko and Dukat manage to catch a Xepolite freighter in the act of smuggling Cardassian weapons into the DMZ. In the meantime, Quark successfully convinces Sakonna, who is now sharing his cell, to cooperate with security; she informs Sisko that Hudson and the others plan to attack a covert Cardassian weapons depot.
Sisko tries one last time to persuade Hudson to stop his crusade and sue for peace; when Hudson refuses, Sisko then proceeds to the location of the weapons depot with Dukat, where he and Hudson get into a dogfight. Ultimately, Hudson retreats, to Dukat's eternal disappointment. In the denouement, Kira congratulates Sisko for averting a war, but Sisko believes he has only delayed the inevitable.
Overall: 8.8 - A principle guest actor's lackluster performance is the only thing that keeps this insightful and politically subversive (for Trek) pair of episodes from attaining feature status.
Writing: 9.5
In refusing to makes things simple, The Maquis demonstrates the writers' laudable respect for the audience. What I appreciate most of all about these two episodes is that they never once diminish the power of the primary antagonists' complaint. We hear lead characters - Major Kira, for one - champion the colonists' right to self-defense and self-determination. We also discover in the course of events that Hudson and the others are absolutely and unequivocally right about the Cardassians' violations of their treaty with the Federation. It would've been very easy to paint the Maquis as a group of paranoiacs, but the writers here never fall into that trap.
Acting: 7.5
These episodes might have been feature-worthy if not for the stiff performance of Ben Casey as Cal Hudson. We are expected to believe that Cal and Ben Sisko have known each other for years, but Casey interacts with Brooks with all the warmth of a glacier - and his more political proclamations are equally stilted, lacking the passion and charisma one would expect in a leader in his position.
Message: 9.5
The Maquis calls into question - and quite aggressively, I might add - Federation high ideals, explicitly associating such ideals with a paradise that exists nowhere else. It presents us with a situation in which no amount of "dialogue" can bring about a satisfactory resolution. Indeed, it is "dialogue" that sets up the principle conflict in these episodes to begin with. The Federation, in the hopes of purchasing peace with the Cardassians, has simply signed off on a lousy deal, conceding what it should not have conceded without first seeing to the defense of those most personally involved. As a result, the Federation has left some its own citizens vulnerable to a foreign power which feels none of the Federation's tender respect for intergalactic peace treaties. Isn't that just the perfect liberal plan?
Oh, and of course, after pulling off this monumental diplomatic travesty, the elites feel perfectly in their rights to swoop in and tell the people on the ground how they should deal with the aftermath. If this were any other Trek, our heroes would have bowed to their superiors' demands - and likely brought about a peace without firing a shot. But this is DS9. On DS9, the conventions are subverted. The utopian idealists come off looking like oblivious idiots while the pragmatists proceed to save the world - at least for the moment. And by the way, their solution involves a show of force.
On the whole, The Maquis is a fabulous nod to realism in a canonical universe dominated by pacifistic conceits. For Sisko's speech ridiculing the view from "paradise" alone, it earns nearly perfect marks on its message.
Highlights below the cut!
Highlights:
KIRA: Feel like getting together for dinner tonight?
DAX: Can't. I'm having dinner with Captain Boday.
KIRA: The Gallamite? You're going out on a date with him?
DAX: Is something wrong with that?
KIRA: No. Not at all.
DAX: He happens to be brilliant. His brain is twice the size of yours and mine.
KIRA: I know. I've seen it.
DAX: It's not his fault Gallamites have transparent skulls.
KIRA: No, it's not. It's just... not exactly the view I want to have with dinner. - Hee!
DUKAT: I can't help but notice that my controls are not illuminated. Isn't it customary for both seats to be turned on so that I may pilot the craft in the event of an emergency?
SISKO: If there's an emergency, I guess you're out of luck.
DUKAT: Commander, I'm not going to sit here and steal all your little technical secrets, I promise you.
SISKO: I appreciate your assurances, but Cardassians are famous for their photographic memories.
DUKAT: So you turn off my controls so I don't have enough light to take my photograph, is that it?
SISKO: I've heard they put Cardassian children in intense mind training programs when they're four years old. Is that true?
DUKAT: The Cardassian educational system is unparalleled in the quadrant.
SISKO: If you don't mind taking the joy out of growing up.
DUKAT: Education is power. Joy is vulnerability.
SISKO: What?
DUKAT: Your reaction surprises me, Commander. I thought you would understand. Of all the humans I've met, you strike me as the most joyless and the least vulnerable.
SISKO: I am when I'm with you. - Zing!
KIRA: Sir, I know this is none of my business...
SISKO: But you're going to give me your opinion anyway.
KIRA: I don't know what the Cardassians told you...
SISKO: They played a confession from the man who planted the bomb. A man they most likely tortured to death.
KIRA: And you don't think you might be playing into their hands?
SISKO: I've got people out there killing people, Major. You suggest I turn a blind eye to that?
KIRA: They don't have a right to defend themselves?
SISKO: They've crossed the line!
KIRA: If Starfleet is unwilling to defend their people -
SISKO: They chose to live with the Cardassians!
KIRA: Well, I didn't! But I lived with them for twenty six years before the liberation came. Every Bajoran lived with them in constant fear. I know what those colonists are going through. Most of all, I know that the Cardassians can't be trusted to keep their side of the bargain in this treaty.
SISKO: So, you'd suggest the Federation not keep our side of the bargain either, perhaps by arming these colonists?
KIRA: I can tell you one thing for certain. The Cardassians are the enemy, not your own colonists, and if Starfleet can't understand that, then the Federation is even more naive than I already think it is. - Yes! Thank you, Kira, for once again providing a necessary external perspective.
BASHIR: What do you think they're telling him?
KIRA: With two kidnappings and a ship exploding in the course of a week, I'm sure they've got a few things to say.
ODO: It's their own fault. I've been warning them from the beginning.
O'BRIEN: What are you talking about, their fault? You're in charge of Security.
ODO: If you will let me be in charge of Security, I will give you a safe station. You people tell me to do my job, then give me a Federation rulebook listing all the things I can't do. Untie my hands before you start to blame me, Mister O'Brien!
DAX: I'm sure no one meant to blame you, Odo.
ODO: Give me the right to set a curfew, let me do more searches of arriving passengers, give me fifty more deputies!
KIRA: And this station will be just the way it was during the occupation.
ODO: Say what you like, it was safer then.
KIRA: Unless you happened to be a Bajoran. - Ouch. I'm thinking the right answer is probably a happy medium between Federation openness and Odo's totalitarian impulse.
HUDSON: The Federation believes that it can solve every problem with a treaty - but out here, on the frontier, without the power of the Federation to back them up, a treaty is only a piece of paper. - Quite true, as we soon see.
NECHEYEV: The Maquis are a bunch of irresponsible hotheads.
SISKO: These hotheads are responsible for the bombing of the Bok'Nor.
NECHEYEV: I'm aware of that, Commander. We never should've allowed those colonists to remain on the Cardassian side of the Demilitarized zone.
SISKO: Well they're there, Admiral, and they're not leaving.
NECHEYEV: What about Commander Hudson? He's lived with these people. What's his analysis of the situation?
SISKO: I'll have to ask him.
NECHEYEV: You do that. And Commander, I want you to find the Maquis. Talk to them. Remind them that they're citizens of the Federation. That it is imperative that we preserve the treaty with the Cardassians.
SISKO: A treaty the Cardassians may not be honouring.
NECHEYEV: Are you questioning Federation policy, Commander?
SISKO: All I know is that the situation in the Demilitarized zone is deteriorating rapidly.
NECHEYEV: Personally, I think you're overstating the problem. Establish a dialogue with the Maquis. They're still Federation citizens. I'm sure they'll listen to reason. Good luck, Commander.
(Necheyev leaves and Kira comes in.)
SISKO: Establish a dialogue? What the hell does she think I've been trying to do?
KIRA: Commander?
SISKO: Just because a group of people belongs to the Federation, it does not mean that they are saints!
KIRA: Excuse me?
SISKO: Do you know what the trouble is?
KIRA: No.
SISKO: The trouble is Earth.
KIRA: Really?
SISKO: On Earth there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet headquarters and you see paradise. It's easy to be a saint in paradise - but the Maquis do not live in paradise. Out there in the Demilitarized zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. Out there, there are no saints, just people - angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive whether it meets with Federation approval or not!
KIRA: Makes sense to me. - AND ME! I think I'm just going to have to become a polygamist when it comes to marrying scenes on DS9, because I totally want to marry this scene, too.
(After Quark is apprehended...)
ODO: One other thing. How long do I keep him in here?
SISKO: Forever.
(Sisko leaves.)
QUARK: Odo...
(Odo leaves.)
QUARK: This isn't funny! Odo! - LOL!
DUKAT: I find a good meal extremely relaxing, especially after a difficult day.
SISKO: So do I.
DUKAT: Really? I wonder what else we have in common.
SISKO: Very little, I imagine.
DUKAT: Other than the fact that you have my office. Tell me, what's going to happen with your prisoners?
SISKO: They'll be tried for their crimes under the Federation Code of Justice.
DUKAT: And if they're found innocent?
SISKO: I doubt that they will, but if they are, they'll be set free.
DUKAT: How barbaric. On Cardassia, the verdict is always known before the trial begins. And it's always the same.
SISKO: In that case, why bother with a trial at all?
DUKAT: Because the people demand it. They enjoy watching justice triumph over evil every time. They find it comforting.
SISKO: Isn't there ever a chance you might try an innocent man by mistake?
DUKAT: Cardassians don't make mistakes.
SISKO: I'll have to remember that.
DUKAT: Commander, one thing does puzzle me. Surely the Central Command was informed of my kidnapping.
SISKO: They learned about it almost as soon as it happened.
DUKAT: Then why was I rescued by you? Why wasn't the station surrounded by Cardassian ships demanding my release?
SISKO: We did receive a visit from Legate Parn.
DUKAT: Ah. I'm sure he made some rather ugly threats on my behalf.
SISKO: He said that you were the one responsible for smuggling weapons into the Demilitarized zone - that if the Maquis did not execute you, then the Central Command would. After a comforting trial, I'm sure. - And Sisko pwns Dukat once again.
DUKAT: You're wasting time. Xepolite ships can reach a maximum speed of warp nine point eight. If they decide to run, we'll never catch them.
KIRA: Well, what would you suggest?
DUKAT: I would breach their shields with my phasers and destroy their bridge.
KIRA: Killing everyone there!
DUKAT: That's correct. Then I would lock onto the ship with my tractor beam and tow it and its cargo back to the station. Very simple, very effective.
SISKO: And needlessly bloody.
KIRA: Sounds like a Cardassian plan to me. - LOL!
QUARK: I hope you're happy.
SAKONNA: I am a Vulcan. My emotional state is irrelevant.
QUARK: Well I'm a Ferengi, and my emotional state is very relevant, and right now I'm miserable and it's all your fault.
SAKONNA: You were well paid for your assistance.
QUARK: Not well enough. Look, I know the Cardassians can't be trusted. I know the Central Command would like nothing better than to destroy the Federation colonies in the Demilitarized zone.
SAKONNA: Then you agree with our position?
QUARK: Not for a second.
SAKONNA: Why not?
QUARK: Because your position is illogical.
SAKONNA: Do you propose to lecture me on logic?
QUARK: I don't want to, but you leave me no choice. It all comes down to the third Rule of Acquisition. You don't know that one, do you?
SAKONNA: I am not well versed in Ferengi philosophy.
QUARK: Remind me to give you a copy of the Rules. You never know when they'll come in handy. Now, the third rule clearly states, 'Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.'
SAKONNA: Logical, but I fail to see how that applies to my situation.
QUARK: You want to acquire peace. Fine. Peace is good. But how much are you willing to pay for it?
SAKONNA: Whatever it costs.
QUARK: That's the kind of irresponsible spending that causes so many business ventures to fail. You're forgetting the third rule. Right now peace could be bought at a bargain price and you don't even realise it.
SAKONNA: I find this very confusing.
QUARK: Then I'll make it so simple that even a Vulcan can understand. The Central Command has been caught red-handed smuggling weapons to their settlers. So, every ship that approaches the Demilitarized zone will be searched. Without the support of the Central Command, the Cardassian settlers won't be so eager to fight.
SAKONNA: You forget the weapons they already have.
QUARK: They have weapons. You have weapons. Everyone has weapons. But right now, no one has a clear advantage. So the price of peace is at an all-time low. This is the perfect time to sit down and hammer out an agreement. Don't you get it? Attacking the Cardassians now will only escalate the conflict and make peace more expensive in the long run. Now, I ask you, is that logical? - Nice job, Quark!
(After Sisko lets Hudson get away...)
DUKAT: I thought you were strong, Commander. You're not. You're a fool. A sentimental fool.
SISKO: I said I'd stop the Maquis and I have. But I will not kill a good man for trying to defend his home.
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