The young man behind Gul Evek who hands him the isolinear rod and Cardassian PADD props looks an awful lot like Rugal, from "Cardassians". However, Vidal Peterson (the actor who played Rugal) is not credited in any other DS9 episodes. Spooky.
"The Maquis" (both parts) is one of the earliest points in Deep Space Nine to show off the real depth of storytelling the show's universe can support. More than any other Star Trek series—even the most modern, Enterprise*—DS9 nails consequences. The sheer magnitude of the events to come over the next five seasons is unparalleled anywhere else in the Trek canon, and this is a preview of just how good the gettin' can (and will) get.
The setup for really meeting the Maquis came in TNG, with the tastes we get of them from "Journey's End" and "Preemptive Strike" near the end of TNG's seventh season. (Those episodes were also very much intentionally used to set up the launch of Voyager, which was caught by the Caretaker's array and brought to the Delta Quadrant while chasing a Maquis ship.) But with TNG over (and Voyager on the other side of the galaxy), the Maquis are really DS9's plaything now. I really love what they do with this gift.
Marc Alaimo is the standout actor in this story. It's about time we got to know more about Gul Dukat. I only wish that Cal Hudson was as impressive. Bernie Casey doesn't seem very comfortable in the role, though it's not entirely his fault: his character isn't as well written as the others, in my opinion. Cal is an unfortunate weak point, given how important he is to the story.
* — If you're wondering whether Discovery is included in "any other Star Trek series", it's not. I could say it's because I simply haven't seen Discovery yet, and that would be true. But the main reason is, I don't consider any Star Trek production from the 2009 film onward to be part of the same universe. Therefore, I won't compare DS9 with anything past Nemesis (which already felt like a different Trek universe).
[8.1/10] Middlemarch by George Eliot is full of insightful passages, but one of my favorites comes when a member of what we’d now consider the middle class tries to talk down a cadre of angry locals who are mad about a train set to run through their community. “Caleb was in a difficulty known to any person attempting in dark times and unassisted by miracle to reason with rustics who are in possession of an undeniable truth which they knew through a hard process of feeling and can let it fall like a giant's club on your neatly carved argument for a social benefit which they do not feel.”
There’s some condescension there, but also a truth about when high-minded decisions from far away centers of power fall on the heads of folks long removed from them. Without knowing the specifics, the Federation-Cardassian treaty first described in “Journey’s End” from The Next Generation sounds like a good and noble thing. Compromises are made between peoples who don’t always see eye-to-eye in the name of brokering a stable peace. There are costs to any such agreements, but the hope is that they’ll be far outweighed by the benefits.
But what does that mean to the people who have to pay those costs? The colonists who have lived in what is now the Cardassian Demilitarized Zone have built their lives in these places. Their options are to abandon their homes and start over or live under increasingly contentious Cardassian rule. If comments from Admiral Nechayev on TNG are any indication, they knew these lands were disputed when they settled. Still, it’s expected, maybe even understandable, that those left behind by this treaty would view it as a farce and an offense, and let that club fall on the Federation’s grand ideals which have nevertheless disrupted their quiet lives.
If you can’t tell, I like “The Maquis” and the concepts the episode has in tow. In a way, they represent the first real chink in the Federation’s morally superior armor. Sure, we’ve had plenty of rogue admirals and questionable orders from Starfleet Command before. But this is something different. It’s a broader idea about deals between governments having winners and losers, and those who receive the short end of the stick on both sides taking matters into their own hands.
The notion of Starfleet officers and Federation citizens disagreeing with Command and official stances isn’t startling. The notion of them resorting to terrorist attacks and being ready to fight a war their government’s trying to avoid, one they feel is inevitable and justified anyway, certainly is.
What makes it particularly interesting is the presence of two figures. The first is Commander Hudson, Starfleet’s liaison to the colonies in the demilitarized zone, whose membership in The Maquis provides the cliffhanger at the center of this duology. The choice to include a man like him is an important one, because it makes it impossible to just write off this group despite their tactics.
He’s introduced as Sisko’s longtime friend. Their wives spent time together. They came up in the service together. Hudson’s not a madman or a dastard. He brings up legitimate points about the bind the treaty puts the colonists in and voices the sense that Federation leadership is blind to the realities and asymmetries of life for those people in the shadow of the Cardassian rule. When he pops up on the Maquis stronghold in “the badlands” of that area of space, his presence is a sign that these are not mustache-twirling villains or folks who’ve lost their minds; they’re people our heroes know and trust, who can’t be written off as easily as all that.
The second is Gul Dukat. In a way, this is his coming out party. We’ve had meaningful glimpses of him in the past, from his involvement with the issue of Cardassian war orphans to his flashback deputizing of Odo. But watching him sit side-by-side with Commander SIsko takes things to a different level entirely.
Like Commander Hudson, he is a reasonable antagonist and countervailing force, someone not reduced to pure evil or straight villainy. He’s not a good man, and isn’t one to be trusted, but he too makes valid points about the Federation’s superiority complex despite foibles of their own. He has a family. He seems to legitimately call off his countrymen in pursuit of Federation vessels. He tells truths Sisko doesn’t want to hear about who’s responsible for the deaths of seventy-eight of his people in an explosion triggered at Deep Space Nine.
In short, he’s bad, but he’s not entirely wrong either. Instead of a flat baddie, he plays like someone on the other side of an international dispute would: holding different values, believing he’s the patriot and good guy, and questioning the hypocrisy and “fair play” of his counterpart, even one he seems to genuinely like. Dukat’s a complicated figure, and his efforts to show Sisko that the Federation isn’t so pure or blameless in all of this are uncomfortable but compelling.
The only blemish here is the B-story, involving Quark trying to romance Sakonna, a Vulcan who wants to business with him and is intrigued by his “cultural idiosyncrasies.” It’s not so bad; it just feels a little awkward to have such a goofy subplot in an otherwise more serious episode. There’s a solid punchline, with Sakonna asking Quark for weapons to contribute to the Maquis, but most of this is Quark’s romance routine. There’s some laughs to be had there. Armin Shimmerman remains a pro at adding endearing touches to an unctuous character. But it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the episode.
Most of the first part of “The Maquis” is focused on a simple question -- whether Sisko can figure out who blew up the Cardassian vessel. What’s interesting is that the audience knows the answer to the essential internal mystery. The cold open shows us a man in Starfleet uniform messing with a control panel on the Cardassian ship moments before it blows up. There’s wiggle room for a twist, but we essentially already know that someone from the side of the traditional good guys is the perpetrator here.
Normally, that’s a weakness for an episode of Star Trek, but it succeeds here because what’s important isn’t whodunnit; it’s Sisko accepting that it was someone from his side. He’s not wrong to suspect malfeasance on the part of the Cardassian when it comes to skirmishes in the Demilitarized Zone. Sisko correctly calls back to the Cardassians arming Bajoran hardliners through a third party to destabilize a burgeoning peace, and despite a confession from the perpetrator, we know from TNG’s “Chain of Command” what Cardassian torture methods can elicit.
But the truth is that the former Federation colonists, who now find themselves under the auspices of the Cardassians, aren’t happy. They don’t feel seen or understood. And just as the Federation government is willing to sacrifice their land in the name of a broader peace, The Maquis are willing to sacrifice that peace and use tactics our heroes would never even consider in the name of what they feel is self-defense. There’s a complexity, a moral grayness to that conflict, the sort interwoven social and political knot Deep Space Nine would eventually become famous for.
It would also become famous for testing the limits of Gene Rodenberry’s vaunted vision. The Great Bird of the Galaxy envisioned a future for humanity beyond creed or cruelty or anything but our greatest ideals. In episodes like “The Maquis”, DS9 had the chutzpah to ask how those ideals and academic principles might seem to the people whose more hardscrabble lives don’t let them feel the benefits of such a pollyanna view. And Star Trek is so much the better for it.
All I can say is, so it begins...
This double header introduces a new player in the sector. Like chess stones the show runners assemble all the factions needed for DS9's story arch: Bajorans, Cardassians, the Federation. Next: the Maquis. And coming up with the Maquis was a brilliant idea. Well, they didn't invent the Maquis. But they really used their potential. We had some renegades before in other shows of the franchise but only DS9 dared to explore the idea that there's a larger group that is dissatisfied with the Federation. The Federation might not as unified as it seems. It's also the first great performance of Gul Dukat. What an excellent foe he is. Or is he maybe a friend? Sort of? Well, that's difficult to say and that makes this character that great.
The episode is also just the first part of a double header. Thus it can't be great. It's solid though. A nice preparation of what's to come.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2017-08-27T17:58:25Z— updated 2017-08-31T09:27:21Z
DS9 has been establishing itself in lots of different ways up to this point, building characters and the politics behind everything. It's given us a look at a lot of different facets of the world these people inhabit, but I think that this is where the show firmly and confidently assumes its own identity.
'The Maquis' is an aggressive episode. Not in terms of action - of which there is very little - but in terms of force of characters. The weight of the responsibilities Commander Sisko has really hits home and he's angry at how little he feels he can do. Kira stands up to him to make her valid arguments and reminds us that she's one of the lucky ones who managed to survive life with the Cardassians. There's even a furious discussion between Odo and the rest of the senior staff which pulls zero punches and is almost uncomfortable to watch.
But on top of all that, we get to really meet Gul Dukat. He's made a number of small appearances so far, but here he's given a big role and we can see the joy that Marc Alaimo brought to the role. Dukat is insincere, evasive, manipulative and yet it's impossible not to absolutely love him (or at least love to hate him). There's not a hint of a one-dimensional bad guy about him, he's a fully formed character with faults and emotions who is written and performed to perfection. Every scene he has with Sisko is dynamic and full of double meanings, it's impossible to take your eyes away.
The only really weak point is Sisko's old friend Cal Hudson, who just never seems to relax into the role and is a distracting performance. He also looks a lot older than our Commander so it's difficult to believe that they came up through the academy together.
The episode itself is a slow burner but effective. A follow up to the narrative established in 'Journey's End' over on TNG, this formally introduces the Maquis who will be around for a long while. The show manages to enter some grey areas where you're not entirely sure who to root for, and while their methods are thoroughly wrong I find myself being sympathetic. I even found the space battle played out with on-screen graphics to be effective here.
Quark also does a good job of flirting with a Vulcan, which can't be an easy task.