Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 109: The Darkness and the Light [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think that probably one of the things that had been overlooked by DS9 until this episode is what the Bajoran resistance did during the Occupation, from not entirely rose-colored glasses. They often looked at Gul Dukat and what he did and it's great to look at Kira in a similar manner. I think that one thing that got put on the backburner in the series is what it means to fight for a cause and what that means doing sometimes and that's not always pretty. Again, it shows that DS9's characters are not infallible and Nana Visitor pulls it off quite well, maintaining the charcter the audience knows, but adding new dimensions.

This episode, which deals with the actions of the Bajoran resistance during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor, is a lesson in the power of hatred and bitterness.

In this episode, Kira's friends from the resistance are being systematically murdered...and of course, Kira must find out why...and by whom. Ultimately, she ends up tracking down the killer...a lone, embittered Cardassian intent on revenge for the injuries he sustained at the hands of the resistance fighters.

Nana Visitor does a fine job in this episode, and the tension in the closing scenes of the show is fantastic.

I give it 4 stars - a good dramatic outing.

Kira's close friends on Bajor are being killed in vicious sadistic attacks and Kira is next. In an explosive scene Kira is kidnapped by a deformed Cardassian who wants to kill her, but realises she is carrying an 'innocent' child. He claims that his nature is not like her's he won't kill the unborn baby, like Kira did. Kira realises that the Cardassian must have been an innocent casualty during one of her raids during the Occupation.

Trapped on an isolated planet, heavily pregnant, Kira must protect herself and the O'Brien's child that she is carrying! Brilliant!

"The darkness cannot exist without the light!"

Kira's past comes back with a vengeance in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Episode 109, "The Darkness and the Light" (Story by Bryan Fuller, Teleplay by Ronald D. Moore, Aired January 6, 1997). Kira (Nana Visitor), who is very pregnant with the O'Brien's child at this point, learns that Vedek Latha Mabrin, a member of the Shakaar resistance cell that she belonged to during the occupation, has been murdered. She then receives a message consisting of Latha's picture and the declaration, "That's one." Figuring out that she and the other members of the cell are in danger she tries to protect one of them only to see them killed as well, followed by a second message. Then a third message arrives.

"The Darkness and the Light" is not a real mystery, which means that you do not get to play along and try to figure out the clues. The only real suspense is over whether Kira will be the only one of the group left before she learns the identity of the killer. Of course Kira can play the passive potential victim only so long before she tries to take matters into her own hands. The episode plays nicely on the moral ambiguity of Kira's past, since one side's freedom fighter is the other side's terrorist, but in the end survival becomes the key consideration and Kira's pregnancy works for her in a rather unexpected way. A solid episode that plays off of Kira's past and present in some interesting ways, but not a classic Kira "DS9" episode.