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If you’ve been enjoying Star Trek: Deep Space Nine but really wanted Commander Sisko to encounter a manic pixie dream girl, then boy do we have the episode for you: “Second Sight”! Then in “Sanctuary”, the crew meet some aliens on the run from something called “The Dominion”. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Jonas Kyratzes
-I feel that, without wanting to sound horribly negative, Sanctuary is one of the episodes that move the Federation closer to being a stand-in for 1990s capitalist democracies rather than a quasi-socialist utopia symbolizing what humanity can achieve.
This is particularly apparent not only in the failure of diplomacy/solidarity, but in the way the material conditions of the Federation and Bajor are treated. I mean, there’s a famine on Bajor? What’s the Federation doing? The technology we see every day in this post-scarcity civilization should easily make famines a thing of the past. Even on our planet right now, we have enough food – we’re just not distributing it in a way that makes sense. But that’s because of capitalism, not because of some innate law of the universe. These people have fleets travelling through space at FTL speeds! Give the Bajorans a handful of replicators and the problem goes away. Don’t tell me the Federation hasn’t solved agriculture. And this can hardly be a Prime Directive-style matter of not wanting to share overly advanced technology, either, given the advanced tech the Bajorans have and the fact they’re considering joining the Federation. If anything, it seems more like a reflection of Western capitalist societies and their relationship with the impoverished parts of the world at the time the show was made – but that just doesn’t make sense in the Star Trek universe.
Given the current refugee situation in Europe, I find this episode doubly irritating. For one thing, in the real world, just taking a look at Greece, thousands of extremely poor people, whose country has been through hell, have been way more heroic than anyone in this episode (actually confirming the traditional Star Trek view of ordinary people and human potential). And sure, the response of the Bajoran government is not unlike the response of European governments, but I think the episode gives it undue legitimacy. The idea that refugees (or immigrants) are this huge burden on a society simply has very little basis in fact even in our world, let alone in a world that contains the Federation.
If this episode was more interested in racism on Bajor, it might be more insightful, but like I said, it gives the racist view undue legitimacy – and reinforces that by having the Skrreeans be just about the dumbest, ugliest, least believable species on Star Trek in a while. They’re like a caricature of the worst stereotypes possible. After all, what is the racist more afraid of than the young, male refugee, dressed in rags, filthy, given to extreme behaviour, convinced that he owns this country now? This depiction makes me very, very uncomfortable.
So ultimately I feel that it’s all rather reactionary, even if the episode clearly thinks this is sad – it’s still taking us back to the modern-day status quo and saying well, maybe that’s just inevitable. That’s what our governments are saying, too. "We’re very sorry you’re all dying, but there’s just no more space in Fortress Europe, you know?" (With the possibility of actually doing something to help people being mentioned as desirable, but ultimately dismissed as utopian, something that just can’t happen in the real world.)
The thing is, I’m invested in the idea of the Federation. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does stand for something – for the idea that yes, we can use diplomacy and technology to permanently solve problems. Things do change for the better. Solutions do exist and can be applied in the real world.
I (sort of) understand that DS9 wants to question that, but I dislike it when it seems to change or disregard the premise in order to do so.
Eric Brasure
-I think this is a fair criticism of "Sanctuary" (especially the part about it needing to be more insightful–as it is, it’s just kind of… there) but I think that you’re being a little unfair to Trek as developing into some sort of stand-in for Western capitalist democracies because to some degree, the Federation was always a stand-in for Western capitalist democracies.
My interpretation of things like resource scarcity and famines on Bajor has always been linked to the portrayal of Bajor as a deeply scarred (and scared) society with a significant number of citizens who want nothing to do with the Federation. It doesn’t surprise me that Bajor, as depicted, would be pigheaded to the point of insanity about accepting replicators or other help from the Federation if it didn’t result in Bajor being able to "stand on its own" or however they’re framing it.
Remember that only a few episodes ago a radical xenophobic political movement nearly succeeded in taking over the Bajoran government. This is a fucked up society.
Jonas Kyratzes
-You’re right that to some degree, the Federation has served as a stand-in for capitalist democracies before. I suppose it did so, originally, in the 1960s, when liberal thought was generally far more economically radical than in the 1990s. But then, TNG is surprisingly radical for its time, and episodes like this one feel like a step backwards, even as the writers are clearly convinced that the negative ending is somehow original and groundbreaking.
I agree that Bajor seems like a very screwed-up society, and like I said, if they went into that in a more detailed and satisfying way – maybe showing how such wounds can heal – all of this would function a lot better for me.
Bajor is probably my biggest problem with the show – it’s so pivotal, but even by the time of season 7, I don’t feel like I know a whole lot about its culture. Or even its religion.
Eric Brasure
-If you really want to see the Federation turned into a stand-in for Western capitalist democracies, go find a copy of the novel The Articles of the Federation where the Federation is depicted as a normal 20th Century tit-for-tat political entity that will throw an entire civilization to the wilderness because they acted weird at a party.