Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 15: Progress [VHS]

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

 

 

This episode focuses mainly on Kira. Our favorite strong willed Major must confront her own demons when faced with a simple, yet complex mission. Is the majority vote always the best case? A crusty, yet charming Bajoran farmer provokes these issues and more in this episode. One of my "early" DS9 favorites.

Throughout PROGRESS, I was convinced that the episode was going to cheat on me, and take the easy way out of the problem. When it confounded my expectations, I was surprised and extremely pleased. I hate it when drama dupes the audience by setting up difficult stakes and then ignoring them, so I was very happy to not only see that avoided here, but that the episode itself was quite thoughtful.

Three farmers stand in the way of progress. Bajor is planning to harvest the molten energy in the core of one of its moons, but to do that all the inhabitants of that moon must relocate. Three simple farmers refuse to leave. The cast includes a man who escaped the earlier Cardassian occupation through sheer strength and determination, and two others who were tortured to the point of losing their power of speech (which, of course, meant that the show producers didn't have write lines for them, or pay them for speaking roles).

The story is rather familiar, as, in fact, are the farmers. It's thanks to a solid performance from Brian Keith as Mullibok, the crusty and cranky old Bajoran, that the story successful so well. The episode rests on his refusal to leave his home, and the actor and the writing are extremely effective at conveying his point of view. He's an extremely sympathetic character despite his overblown and arrogant personality. The episode sinks or swims depending on how likeable the audience finds the farmers, and it is definitely a success on that point.

What I really liked about this one was the fact that there is no real room for a satisfactorily happy ending, and that the episode refuses to take the easy way out. There's a silly subplot revolving around Jake and Nog trading useless items for more useless items in a vain attempt to eventually get their hands on some gold-pressed latinum. It's a nice counterpoint to the seriousness of the rest of the story and the overall episode is quite good and very satisfying.