‘IN THE HANDS OF THE PROPHETS’ (DS9)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Here is the finale of ‘DS9’s first season! This is quite a dramatic conclusion to the show’s first season, concerning the rising tensions between Starfleet and Bajor and how they work together on the station.
The episode has Rosalind Chao as Keiko O’Brien teaching her school kids before she’s interrupted by Louise Fletcher as Vedek Winn, one of Bajor’s spiritual leaders. Keiko is teaching about the wormhole!
But what Keiko teaches about the Bajoran wormhole in terms of science is different to how the Bajorans teach it in terms of religion. Vedek Winn is intent to prevent Keiko what she calls ‘blasphemy’.
This episode features the debut of Louise Fletcher as Vedek Winn, one of the show’s antagonists. I’ve seen Louise Fletcher before in the film ‘The Boy Who Could Fly’. I was delighted upon discovering this.
Winn does come across as an unlikeable character in the series. Whilst she has her religious belief, she’s also really narrow-minded and bent on gaining power inside the Bajoran community she lives in.
Keiko shares the incident that happened with Winn at her school to Sisko. Sisko asks for Kira’s help on the matter, but Kira seems supportive of Winn considering she’s for candidacy as the next Bajoran Kai.
Sisko eventually meets Winn inside the Bajoran chapel on DS9. She keeps calling him ‘the Emissary of the Prophets’ but doesn’t understand why he was chosen by Kai Opaka and is pretty jealous of him. 😦
Winn won’t back down from what she did at Keiko’s school earlier. She wants Keiko to teach Bajoran religion at the school she teaches. But Keiko is not willing to teach what she does not believe in herself.
As a consequence, tensions are stirred between Federation and Bajoran citizens on DS9. The Bajorans once again seem against the Federation’s presence on board DS9 as a result of Winn’s causing trouble.
There are a lot of issues regarding religion and politics featured in this episode, causing division among people. It reflects how modern society is today with so many against each other’s beliefs and religions.
Chief O’Brien meanwhile has troubles of his own. He and his assistant Robin Christopher as Neela (who has appeared a few times before in the series) discover the remains of a deceased Starfleet ensign. 😮
Apparently, the ensign took one of O’Brien’s engineering tools and was found dead in a runabout pad. Odo and Bashir help in the investigation to uncover that the ensign had been murdered by phaser fire.
Meanwhile, Sisko meets up with Philip Anglim as Vedek Bareil on Bajor, who is also up for the candidacy of the next Bajoran Kai. This is also Vedek Bareil’s debut appearance for the ‘DS9’ series. 😀
Sisko wants Bareil’s help to resolve the trouble stirred up by Winn regarding Keiko’s school on DS9. Bareil wishes to help but fears it may jeopardise his chances in becoming the next Kai. Thus, he refuses.
Later on, an explosion occurs at the school on DS9. Thankfully, the school was empty and Keiko wasn’t inside when Odo and O’Brien check it out. Apparently, a home-made bomb had been planted in there.
Sisko accuses Winn for her actions in the increasing violence aboard the station. Winn accuses Sisko for bringing her people into darkness. But Sisko defies her on how the latest seven months have been.
He tells her in front of everyone, including Kira, that the Federation and Bajorans have been working well together on DS9. He tells her that he knows the Bajorans don’t consider the Federation ‘the devil’.
Despite this, it’s revealed Winn and O’Brien’s assistant Neela have been working together to cause disruption to the station. They also work together to try and assassinate Bareil who comes to visit DS9.
Thankfully O’Brien and Dax work out what’s going on and warn Sisko about Neela about to assassinate Bareil. Sisko stops Neela in time while she proclaims that ‘the prophets spoke’ to her to murder Bareil.
Kira accuses Winn for attempting to assassinate Bareil in order to become the next Kai. Winn refuses to admit it. I like how this episode ends with Kira apologising to Sisko and saying that he isn’t the devil.
‘In The Hands of the Prophets’ is a fitting conclusion to Season 1 of ‘DS9’. Overall, Season 1 of ‘DS9’ has been pretty decent. It’s not a great season overall, but it was the beginning of something greater here.
On Disc 6 of the ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 1’ DVD, there are the documentaries ‘Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning’, ‘Crew Dossier: Kira Nerys’, ‘Michael Westmore’s Aliens: Season 1’, ‘Secrets of Quark’s Bar’, ‘Alien Artifacts’, ‘Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: Season 1’ and ‘The Deep Space Nine Scrapbook: Season 1’. There’s also a photo gallery of Season 1 and some Section 31 hidden files.
‘In The Hands of the Prophets’ (DS9) rating – 8/10
‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Season 1’ DVD rating – 7/10
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