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Recap / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 02 E 10 Sanctuary

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Kira has been arguing with the provisional government on Bajor so much that she's been slipping in her duties. After a quick reprimanding from Sisko, DS9 gets a visitor from the other side of the wormhole.

Beaming the four occupants (one woman and three males) aboard the station, they encounter a small issue: they can't understand each other. The visitors' language is complicated even for the Universal Translator, so it's gonna take a while for it to kick in. The visitors seem to ignore everyone but Kira, so she's stuck chauffeuring them around and keeping them talking until they start making sense.

After a short walk around the station, the translator finally kicks in. The woman is named Haneek, a Skrreean. The Skrreeans were conquered and enslaved before their conquerors themselves were conquered by the mysterious Dominion.

Three million Skrreean people are in search of the "Eye of the Universe" (the wormhole) which will lead them to a fabled planet named Kentanna, a "planet of sorrows" where the Skrreeans are prophesied to sow "seeds of joy." Soon, several throngs arrive and make themselves at home on the station.

The Skrreeans are a matriarchal society, which is why Haneek gravitated to Kira. She can't help but find it ridiculous that she has to talk to men about matters of importance on the station, though she apologizes for any offense the men might take. The male Skrreeans on the station prove to be rather stupid and violent, so maybe she has a point. A group of boys, including Haneek's son Tumak, quickly make enemies of Nog.

A council of women elect Haneek as their leader, since she found the Eye. After a Bajoran musician sympathizes with her plight and gifts her a recording of one of his performances, Haneek declares that she's has found Kentanna: Bajor.

Bajor's representatives regretfully inform Haneek that the planet simply doesn't have the resources for three million new refugees. They're in the midst of a famine, after all. Haneek declares that the Skrreean don't need help and will use their farming acumen to bring new life to the world, but the Bajorans doubt it and say that if the Skrreean fail, the government will be morally bound to support them. Haneek begs Kira to intercede, but Kira agrees with her government and urges Haneek to accept the Starfleet's proposal of Draylon II as a new homeland.

Tumak is not happy. Boarding his damaged ship, he heads for Bajor. Two Bajoran interceptors move to shoot him down. Sisko contacts their superior officer to call them off, but it's too late. Tumak fires on them, and they fire back. Their phaser blasts ignite the radiation leaking from his ship and destroy it.

As the Skrreean leave DS9 for Draylon II, Kira bids Haneek good luck, hoping to depart on good terms. But Haneek is coldly furious, castigating Kira for betraying her and stating that the Skrreean might have helped end the Bajoran famine, but now they'll never know. She accuses the Bajorans of turning frightened and suspicious after 50 years of occupation, declaring, "Bajor is not Kentanna." Kira is left speechless as Haneek leaves, and the cargo bay doors close between them.


Tropes

  • Anime Hair: All Skreean females have a giant ridge of hair sticking up on their heads.
  • Artistic License – Physics: How does Tumak's shuttle get destroyed? By a phaser blast setting radiation on fire.
  • Blatant Lies: Nog's apologies and claims of contrition are all transparently false.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: Hakeen notes that the Skrreeans could use their farming skills to help end the famine, but the Bajorans also fairly note that if they fail, it could cause severe food shortages for the existing Bajoran population. Neither side is presented as incorrect.
  • Brick Joke: While touring the Promenade, Haneek sees a dress and makes several comments about it. Later, after they get the UT to work, Kira buys her the dress, but learns that she wasn't enthralled by it. She actually found it to be ugly.
  • Broken Aesop: The Skrreaans' situation is clearly an allegory for real-life refugee crises, so when the Bajoran government doesn't allow them to locate to Bajor, this is presented as a morally questionable choice. However, in real life most refugees seek asylum because they want to live free of war and oppression and be able to meet their everyday material needs. In this story, the Skrreeans already have a place to go where they can have all that, an uninhabited planet that suits their needs much better than Bajor, which is recovering from a decades long occupation and can barely feed its own people. It's only because Haneek interprets a religious prophecy of the Skrreeans in a specific way that they think Bajor is better for them than Draylon II. So the allegory falls apart here, because in real life refugees don't have the option of moving to a plentiful, uninhabited land that they're free to use any way they want to.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Nog, when Jake tells him about a dabo girl who studies entomology.
    Nog: What is entomology?
    Jake: The study of bugs.
    Nog: You mean she wants to be a chef?
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Varani, Kira's musician friend, is shown playing a version of the series theme to a mesmerized audience.
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: While waiting in Odo's office, Nog sees a bunch of rap sheets on the display, one of which is for weapons smuggling. He says that Quark once talked about how profitable weapons smuggling is, to which Odo immediately perks up and asks what he would know about it. Cue Quark entering, saying he knows better than to get involved in something so disreputable.
  • Downer Ending: Haneek's foolish son dies when he attacks Bajor and the Skrreean people are forced to relocate to another planet.
  • Exotic Extended Marriage: The Skreean are apparently polyandrous.
  • Hypocrite: Haneek explains that women rule their society because the men are too driven by their emotions. Once Bajor rejects the Skrreeans' request to emigrate, however, she's immediately filled with bitterness and spite to the point of refusing to acknowledge the valid points raised by Bajor and ends her friendship with Kira despite the latter's attempt to remain on friendly terms.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Nog runs into the Skrreean boys that he pulled a prank on, he suddenly remembers that he has some errands to run for Quark. He doesn't escape in time to avoid a small fight.
  • Intimidation Demonstration: Quark hisses at the punk Skrreean boys to stop them in their tracks. When they finally leave, Nog hisses at them while safely behind Quark's shoulder.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Haneek tells a group of men that men are too emotional and violent to be trusted with anything. She only then realizes that her statements might be insulting and apologizes if anyone took offense, lamely professing that Skrreean women do still love men. Later, a group of women titter amongst themselves when a mixed-gender party of officers arrives with news. Haneek has to apologize for them.
  • Lady Land: The Skrreean leadership is all female out of the belief that men are too emotional and violent to lead. It's unclear whether this is just prejudice or a real trait of the species. Hakeen's "bonded males" and son act like obnoxious morons.
  • Meaningful Background Event: When Kira and Haneek are talking at Quark's bar, you can see a Skrreean women in the background right beside Varani looking him over with what looks like confusion, as opposed to the bar patrons from earlier in the episode who marveled at him from a respectable distance. This serves as a subtle hint towards the misandry of Skrreean women, viewing Varani as a new and intriguing curiosity rather than a talented musician.
  • Myth Arc: This is the second time that the Dominion is mentioned, and the first to give a hint to its brutality.
  • Papa Wolf: Quark is quick to spring into action when some of the Skreean boys begin to beat up Nog.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure:
    • When the Bajoran general who dispatched the interceptors to stop the Skreean vessel from landing learns it's just children on the ship, he tries to give the order to the interceptors not to fire on the ship, but he's not quick enough.
    • The minister and vedek who reject the Skrreean resettlement are clearly sympathetic to them but have to consider that bringing in three million refugees may prove a fatal blow to the fragile Bajoran state, especially since they have no empirical evidence that they can actually make the land arable again.
  • Security Cling: Nog clings to Quark's shoulder and stands behind him after getting rescued from the Skrreean toughs.
  • Shout-Out: Quark doesn't like Varani's slow, mesmerizing music, and wants him to play something with more bounce.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Haneek's son Tumak steals a Skrreean ship and attacks the Bajoran military with it when they refuse to allow him and his people on to their world, to predictably fatal results.
  • Translator Microbes: We actually see the universal translator failing to immediately work for once. The Skrreean language is too complex for it to begin translating and takes at least an hour before they can start communicating.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: The Skrreeans generally come off as this for people who managed to escape slavery and taste freedom, especially Haneek. Sisko generously allows them aboard Deep Space 9 where they proceed to run amok, and when the Federation is able to locate a planet for them to settle on they insist on wanting to go to Bajor due to an interpretation of their religion. Bajor is still recovering from a brutal fifty year Cardassian occupation, and the Skrreeans give the highly dubious promise they will somehow fix the tainted farmland, while if they are wrong or fail the Skrreeans will all starve, and Haneek is vindictive and spiteful about it to Kira despite all the logical arguments made by the Bajorans. Haneek's son Tumak is even worse about it, outright attacking the Bajoran military with a ship and having to be destroyed for it. They only reluctantly and without gratitude go through with settling on the planet the Federation located for them in the end, with Haneek still having bitter contempt, and condescending pity for Kira despite her hospitality and good points.
  • Villainous Rescue: The Skrreeans escaped their enslavement while their conquerors were being beat down by the Dominion.
  • Women Are Wiser: With a male population dominated by emotions and violence, Skreean females run their society.


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