Being A Saint In Paradise

New Post: Looking at Episode 2 of Deep Space 9, "Past Prologue".

Discussing Post-Colonialism, Peace Processes and Palestine and more.

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Past Prologue or, What Is A Traitor?

“I want Bajor for Bajorans. I want our homeland back” – Tahna Los

“As long as you are still fighting in defense of your dignity and for your occupied land, all is well.”- George Habash, Palestinian freedom fighter.

How far is far enough? Every victorious revolutionary movement, every fight for freedom will eventually have to ask itself this question. When the conqueror is expelled or the colonial power leaves your country, what’s next? How do we rebuild, what kind of people are we without the oppressor to hate, and who do we want in charge?

Past Prologue, the second episode of Deep Space 9 is about that struggle. The debate throughout this episode is between the moderate and the radical, in this case Kira Nerys and her former comrade Tahna Los. Tahna represents a dissident cell of Bajoran revolutionaries known as the Kohn-Ma, alleged to be continuing attacks against Cardassians. While not honest in his intentions, much of the episode is a dialogue between Tahna and Kira as he attempts to persuade her to engage in an act of terror to undermine both Federation and Cardassian interests.

The Propaganda Villain

The debate however is somewhat undercut with a trope that has become all too common in presentations of radical figures. Tahna, in his goal to secure total independence for Bajor, is willing to detonate an explosive that could kill thousands of Bajoran colonists so long as he achieves his goal of collapsing the wormhole and undermining the Federation presence. In an era where mass movements in defence of people’s rights have become more common, whether it be the environment, black lives matter or any other, portraying radicals as callous and murderous has become common in mass media. You only have to look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which characters with noble goals are inevitably shown to be vicious self-serving thugs, as in Black Panther where our radical black nationalist villain casually murders his own girlfriend and pivots to a bizarre attempt at “African imperialism” that must be defeated by the noble American CIA. Before his heel turn Tahna is often portrayed as cold and manipulative, passionate but misguided. Our heroes are always the reasonable moderates who seek to restore or maintain the exploitative status quo, and who favour gradual peaceful reforms.

Thankfully the portrayal here is not nearly so black and white as it is in our current popular media. For one, Kira is clearly conflicted from the beginning. Despite her position as the moderate voice this episode, in reality her politics are portrayed as mid-way between the conservative Provisional Government and the radical Tahna. In many ways she can see the wisdom in what Tahna argues. She can see the Provisional Government is weak, she fears that the Federation will undermine the newfound independence of Bajor. Right up until Tahna pulls a gun on her she is contemplating even joining him, a bold gambit to play with a major character this early on in a series and one which does a lot of work to make Tahna’s points seem legitimate.

KIRA: How could I possibly turn against my own people?

ODO: Are they? Your own people?

KIRA: They’re no different than I used to be.

“Dissidents” and Traitors

“Under peaceful conditions, the warlike man attacks himself.” – Nietzche

In recent decades we have seen a wave of national liberation movements accepting peace agreements that fall far short of their stated goals. In the Basque country, ETA unilaterally surrendered and disbanded short of an independent Basque state. In Ireland, rather than a 32 County Democratic Socialist Republic, the IRA and Sinn Fein accepted a compromise that now has them running the Northern Irish state they swore to destroy. In the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation accepted an agreement that has them running a “Palestinian state” that is little more than a puppet of the Israeli occupiers. It is this that every revolutionary fighting for national liberation fears the most, that his former comrades will surrender before the fight is finished. These revolutionaries go on to become what we call “dissidents”, revolutionaries who reject the mainstream capitulation of their movements and continue to struggle. George Habash and his Popular Front for The Liberation of Palestine, whose quote opens this article, was one such figure who rejected compromise with colonialism. Often dissidents are brutally hunted down by their erstwhile comrades. If a state is established, they refuse to accept it as a legitimate representative of the people. This is the real world analogue Tahna Lo and his Kohn Ma cell, and a conversation early on lays out the thinking well:

KIRA: Somebody has to coordinate relations between the Federation and the Provisional Government, At least with someone like me here

TAHNA: Why? Why should they be here at all? What right does this so-called Provisional Government have to bring them here.

KIRA: I know

TAHNA: After everything we fought for, Kira. Freedom from domination, true independence. No outsiders. No Cardassians, and no Federations.

And if we look at the events of the episode, his fears of Federation aren’t entirely unfounded. In this we see them work with a spy in the employ of the former occupier (Garak) to coordinate with the imperial power (Cardassia) to thwart the efforts of a nationalist revolutionary. Best intentions of the Federation aside, it is this kind of meddling to “keep the peace” that has thwarted many a real world righteous struggle. That we know the Federation is not immoral is irrelevant from the Bajoran perspective in-universe. The fear expressed by Tahna in this episode of the assimilation and destruction of Bajoran culture is a sentiment that will be echoes throughout the series by non-Federation characters:

TAHNA: Once you’re in your comfortable bed with the Federation, you won’t be able to get out. We won’t be able to get out.

Of course what makes it easier to denounce Tahna’s actions is that his plans are indeed misguided. As Sisko points out, Tahna’s organisation has assassinated a Bajoran First Minister for reasons unknown. Tahna believes shutting the wormhole will begin the end of Federation meddling: it’s far more likely to have a ripple effect that could lead to Cardassian re-occupation. Kira is also right that control of the wormhole is a major asset for Bajor and shouldn’t be destroyed due to narrow minded prejudices. Revolutionaries may balk at the idea of compromise and yet they are often necessary to protect the gains we have made. The problem is of course that it is difficult to discern between a sellout and a compromise, and many heroic people have found themselves on the wrong side of such a decision. As Lenin argued in 1920:

“Of course, in politics, where it is sometimes a matter of extremely complex relations—national and international—between classes and parties, very many cases will arise that will be much more difficult than the question of a legitimate “compromise” in a strike or a treacherous “compromise” by a strike-breaker, treacherous leader, etc. It would be absurd to formulate a recipe or general rule (“No compromises!”) to suit all cases. One must use one’s own brains and be able to find one’s bearings in each particular instance.”- Lenin, Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder

In the case of Bajor, despite the Federation presence, they have a genuine national and sovereign government for the first time. It’s not a bastardised compromise like what Yasser Arafat and the PLO accepted, there is no continuing collaboration with the former coloniser. That isn’t something to dismiss, and a genuine national government provides the basis on which a better society can be struggled for that an imperialist occupation makes impossible. Sometimes tactical retreats are necessary in the face of overwhelming odds. As Kira explains:

KIRA: We have it back. And as we grow stronger, we’ll be able to defend it ourselves without having to lean on the Federation or anyone else. I know it’s difficult to see. After all we’ve been through, we want it all now.

In our world, a national government allows the development of class struggle to take place that may usher in a social revolution. Further, while national independence should be struggled for, in the long run it is the goal of any socialist to unite all peoples in a single society without national or ethnic divisions. Ultimately the goals of Tahna in this episode representative what Lenin would have called “narrow nationalism”, the kind of nationalism that only drags people backwards. When fighting against an occupation “Bajor for the Bajorans” was progressive, when the fight is won similar slogans can quickly take on a more sinister, xenophobic and ethno-nationalist meaning. Tahna’s plan is also, in revolutionary terms, a kind of “ultra-left deviation”, that is a position that is far too extreme for the position Bajor finds itself. A true revolutionary should always adapt himself and his positions to the material circumstances facing the people.

Nonetheless there’s real bite to the closing lines of the episode:

KIRA: Tahna, the old ways don’t work anymore. Everything is different now. I had to do this. One day you’ll understand.
TAHNA: Traitor.

In this case Kira is not truly a traitor, as the episode has presented. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t sting.

“To accept battle at a time when it is obviously advantageous to the enemy, but not to us, is criminal; political leaders of the revolutionary class are absolutely useless if they are incapable of “changing tack, or offering conciliation and compromise” in order to take evasive action in a patently disadvantageous battle.” - V.I. Lenin, 1920



https://marxistds9.wordpress.com/2022/04/04/past-prologue-or-what-is-a-traitor/

Past Prologue or, What Is A Traitor? “I want Bajor for Bajorans. I want our homeland back” – Tahna Los “As long as you are still fighting in defense of your dignity and for your occupied land, all is well.”- George Habash, Palestinian…

Enter the Wormhole: Emissary Parts I and II and Introduction

Emissary, the hour and a half long pilot episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9, aired January 3rd 1993. A radical departure from previous Star Trek series, the newfound serialisation and static setting would allow the series to delve into topics previous sci-fi shows could only address in passing: racism, imperialism, colonialism and more.

Why write about Star Trek and Deep Space 9 in particular from a Marxist perspective? Everyone needs a hobby of course, but beyond that there are themes and ideas at play in Star Trek that deserve to be analysed with some seriousness given the impact it has had on science fiction and wider society as a whole. It is of course always possible to descend into self-parody when doing these things, so special care is needed not to get too self serious, and light hearted posts will make up part of the project despite the heavier tone of this opening salvo.

Deep Space Nine, a space station on the frontier of Federation space, owned by a formerly oppressed people, the Bajorans, newly freed from the imperial Cardassians, from the beginning it was populated by seedier characters from a variety of different alien races, allowing exploration of fictional cultures and clashes not possible on the confines of the famous Enterprise. It is essentially a spinoff building off of an ongoing plotline in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The opening episode finds a black American Commander, Benjamin Sisko, handed control of the station and working with a Bajoran second in command, Kira Nerys, an Indian British Doctor, Julian Bashir, a transgender alien, Jadzia Dax, an Irish chief engineer, Miles O’Brien and a shapeshifting alien security chief named Odo. While not exactly a cult classic, it has always been overshadowed by its more popular predecessors.

The Federation in Star Trek is the closest thing that Western mainstream culture has to a positive portrayal of a classless, moneyless society – communism. Every citizen is free to pursue their interests free from want or hunger. The Federation is an alliance of planets and alien races all united by a common government, with all needs taken care of by advanced technology. Starfleet is both its scientific exploration wing and it’s military. This society is also often directly contrasted with grotesque societies motivated by greed and conquest, such as the Ferengi or Klingons. How an ideal future for humanity is perceived by the public should be of interest to Marxists. Despite a socialist utopia being what the Federation is, there are ambiguities present throughout the myriad Trek episodes.

Some of these are inherent to the setting, others are the inevitable result of producing media constrained by the limits of capitalism and bourgeois rule (studio interference, censorship etc). It is also true that television is a collaborative process, subject to dozens of competing visions. Fantastical settings and concepts can avoid the more blatant censorship that a straightforward presentation would suffer. Yet metaphor and satire can also create confusion in the audience that blunt treatments would not – how else to explain how fascists and reactionaries can enjoy a show ostensibly about a utopian socialist society?

Nowhere is the ambiguity of the setting more pronounced than in Deep Space 9, which delves into its own setting as well as critiquing imperialism, capitalism and colonial domination. Compared to the rosy picture painted in the Next Generation we have a sort of Trek Revisionism – is the Federation what it’s cracked up to be? Despite its best intentions, is the Federation only a mirror of its imperialist enemies?

A Socialist Utopia

In drawing inspiration for the Federation, it is clear that Gene Roddenberry and his successors drew from what they saw as the best democratic traditions of Western society – tolerance, respect, equality. Rather than being the result of struggle, the Star Trek future is essentially presented as a bourgeois democracy that has evolved out of oppression and scarcity. In this sense the future being presented is disconnected from the Marxist idea of how to achieve a communist society – rather we are seeing a more idealistic and earlier form of socialist thinking, Utopian Socialism. Pioneered by figures like Robert Owen and Saint-Simon in the early 19th century, largely men from the rising capitalist class, they believed that all that was needed to achieve a utopian society was essentially the strength and merit of their ideas, with all social classes taking part. This was in sharp contrast to Marx and Engels, who emphasised that only class struggle, and the working class in particular, could achieve such a goal:

“They want to improve the condition of every member of society, even that of the most favoured. Hence, they habitually appeal to society at large, without the distinction of class; nay, by preference, to the ruling class. For how can people, when once they understand their system, fail to see in it the best possible plan of the best possible state of society?

Hence, they reject all political, and especially all revolutionary action; they wish to attain their ends by peaceful means, necessarily doomed to failure, and by the force of example, to pave the way for the new social Gospel.”

– Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto Chapter III
This attitude, that an ideal future is possible through compromise, reasoned debate and ideas is at the heart of the Star Trek setting. Membership of the Federation for new planets is presented as being a result of societies reaching a state of enlightenment as a whole. This is inevitably presented as a mostly peaceful process rather than the result of upheaval and the struggles of the oppressed (there are exceptions of course, and these will be addressed at a later stage). In this sense, Star Trek presents a socialist utopia that even a Liberal can find palatable, shorn of the unpleasantness and bloodshed that has marked socialist revolutions in human history.

This assessment isn’t meant to condemn the show entirely on my part. Utopia as an ideal to aspire to has inspired a great many people historically, and unlike the vast majority of western media sometimes rises above the mire of current human society to make the case for a better world. Gene Roddenberry’s vision for this could sometimes seem almost dystopian in itself, with his demands that there be no interpersonal conflict or drama among the Next Generation crew, and yet this is interesting to explore in itself. What we are presented with in the Federation is a society that in terms of its cultural and legal norms (the superstructure) is similar to a liberal western democracy, stripped of the hypocrisy inherent to actually existing democracies. It is an evolution of our present rather than a fundamental break with it.

Is the Federation a stand in for the West, as the supposed peak of human progress, or is it an idealised society to aspire to? As this blog will explore, the answer in Deep Space 9 is often either or both depending on the story. This contradiction is unavoidable in a fictional work rooted in our present and produced by Americans and for an American audience. A purely utopian future would have little resonance in a nightmarish society run on profit, and yet there needs to be something of a rosy picture if a case is to be made for a more moral future. At times however the parallels between the Federation and Western imperialism are difficult to ignore, to the point where the criticism can become lost.

Imperialism and Colonialism
“And that is why I’m here – not to conquer you with weapons or with ideas, but to coexist and learn.” – Sisko

“Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the population of the world by a handful of “advanced” countries. And this “booty” is shared between two or three powerful world plunderers armed to the teeth.” – V.I. Lenin

The concept of the Prime Directive rejects the idea of intervention as a method of human progress. The Next Generation episode Who Watches The Watchers serves as an ideal example. In this story, accidental contact between the Federation and an underdeveloped tribal society leads to chaos as the people of the planet begin worshipping Starfleet as gods. The liberal imperialist attitude dominant in the West is that Westerners, as the “most advanced” peoples on Earth not only have the ability to aid “backwards” societies in their development, but the obligation to do so. Inevitably any such attempts have only lead to imperial and colonial domination over oppressed peoples, the resources of their lands plundered and their labour exploited. In rejecting the moral right to intervene in the lives of other peoples Trek is a dramatic improvement over the jingoistic and interventionist consensus in American and European society.

In Who Watches the Watchers, the final conversation between Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard and two natives is as good an expression as any of the Trek ideal:

PICARD: It is our highest law that we shall not interfere with other cultures.

Alien 1: Then revealing yourselves was an accident.

PICARD: Oh, yes, and now we must leave you.

Alien 1: Why? There’s so much you can teach us.

PICARD: But that, too, would be interference. You must progress in your own way.

Alien 2: So we will. You have taught us there is nothing beyond our reach.

PICARD: Not even the stars.

This attitude in some ways dovetails with the historical Communist attitude towards oppressed and underdeveloped nations. That each society has its own internal dynamic and its own development, that foreign interference can be destructive and undermine the self-determination of those peoples. And implicit here again is that utopian socialist ideal – socialism is within reach of any people, so long as they adopt the right ideals. This is in contrast to the Marxist idea of progress, in which society advances in stages only thanks to revolution and the struggle between classes developing the forces of production (industry, agriculture etc) and revolutionising the relations of production (the relations between people, classes etc in society).

Emissary again presents us with a case of first contact, although it’s much more abstract. In the wormhole near planet Bajor, Captain Sisko encounters the mythical prophets, entities that exist outside of and have no concept of linear time. Sisko manages to explain to these aliens the concept of time and space, and presents the Federations goals as “not to conquer you with weapons or with ideas, but to coexist and learn.” This principle is of course entirely admirable from a socialist perspective compared to the endless conquests and wars of our imperial present. However, it also perfectly dovetails with liberal concepts of multi-culturalism, something that will be explored more in future. Early showrunner Michael Piller summarises this well: “’We are not a threat to you, and we’re different, and differences can be good,’ he says, echoing the same theme – that humanity has overcome and we can coexist in the universe.” The cast we are introduced to in Emissary is admirably diverse in terms of representing a series of wildly disparate alien cultures as well as reflecting the ethnic diversity of Earth. Certainly a black main character in science fiction television in 1990s was nothing to scoff at.

The rationalist and pro-science aspect of Trek is also admirably on display in Emissary, a trend that is welcome considering much modern science fiction embraces the religious and irrational. The Prophets, worshipped as gods by Bajorans, are simply unexplained entities rather than a God or Gods beyond rational explanation. This however does not become a dismissive attitude towards religion, and the healing that Sisko undergoes in terms of accepting his grief over the death of his wife is akin to a spiritual experience. His earlier encounter with Bajoran spiritual leader Kai Opaka reinforces this.

Deep Space 9 aired at something of an exceptional era in the history of global capitalism. Following the collapse of the USSR, the United States of America was left as the sole global superpower. The idealised image of the USSR and its promise of human emancipation was gone, replaced by near total western hegemony. Anti-colonial and national liberation movements around the world slowly wound down, largely replaced by a series of seemingly intractable ethnic conflicts, The USSR with all its faults had allowed space for these movements to manoeuvre by providing weapons and aid to enemies of the West, now conflicts would be largely asymmetric and short-lived as the Gulf War was in 1991-2. The brutal war in Yugoslavia was still raging when Deep Space 9 aired its initial seasons. In this context the criticism of Western hegemony was more important than ever, and yet also never more isolated.

American and NATO interventions since the collapse of the USSR have been the dominant form of major conflict in the world. In explicitly critiquing the concept of intervention and assimilation as DS9 does, the show uses the Federation as a stand-in for a supposedly enlightened West to make the case against imperialist occupation and invasion. But this admirable quality is undermined by the simultaneous presentation of the Federation as genuinely ideal and enlightened.

Fortunately the presentation of other imperial powers in the setting are much more straightforward, none moreso than its presentation of the Dominion and the Cardassian Empire. Both are essentially presented as monolithic, fascist societies that engage in slavery and domination. Unlike previous Star Trek iterations, these empires are not so clearly racially coded as “other” either, with the shapeshifting Founders of the Dominion being coded as white, and the Cardassians vaguely reptilian and European, in sharp contrast to the vaguely non-white or Asian presentation of Klingons in the Original series. And in its long running thread about the former occupation of the oppressed planet of Bajor, we have as clear a presentation of a heroic national liberation struggle as has appeared in American media, even with all its ambiguities. Bajor is Palestine, Bajor is Ireland, Bajor is dozens of African countries struggling for sovereignty. The show’s portrayal of Bajor’s struggles to develop as a post-colonial society forms one of it’s richest threads.

Post-Colonialism

“….this Bajoran Provisional Government is far too provisional for my taste. And when governments fall, people like me are lined up and shot.” – Quark

In Emissary, the Cardassian imperialist occupation of Bajor, which has lasted 60 years, has just ended. A hastily cobbled together government has been created out of elements of the Bajoran resistance, with the Federation acting as a neutral arbiter. When Benjamin Sisko arrives on Deep Space 9, a former Cardassian outpost, he witnesses chaos. Criminality, destruction, rubbish spread across the halls. We see little of Bajor itself but what we see is in ruins. The scars of the occupation are plain to see. The new Provisional Government right from the outset is presented as unstable and likely to be overthrown.

SISKO: I was just talking with our good neighbour, Quark. He’s laying odds that the government’s going to fall.

KIRA: Quark knows a good bet when he hears one. This government will be gone in a week and so will you.

SISKO: What happens to Bajor then?

KIRA: Civil war.

When the old style colonialism collapsed in our world after the Second World War, we say many similar cases. The rapid withdrawal of the European powers from Africa and Asia, by force or otherwise, left many of the new states underdeveloped and with inexperienced and ill-equipped governments in charge. In many of these countries, the new ruling class quickly proved to be almost as corrupt or brutal as the colonial administrations that preceded them. Many of these governments would be overthrown or collapse into civil war. Most have failed to ever successfully escape the influence of their former colonial masters. Often men and women who have lived as anti-colonial guerrillas are not always ideologically or temperamentally suited to run a country. Often the most wealthy and opportunist elements of a society in struggle will rise to the top and seize power. Forces with competing interests that were united by the simple anti-occupation struggle are broken apart. It is that context that informs the state of Bajor in Deep Space 9 as we open the series.

The situation that such states encounter is summarised well by Guinea-Bissau’s revolutionary leader Amilcar Cabral:

“Our problem is to see who is capable of taking control of the state apparatus when the colonial power is destroyed. In Guinea the peasants cannot read or write, they have almost no relations with the colonial forces during the colonial period except for paying taxes, which is done indirectly. The working class hardly exists as a defined class, it is just an embryo. There is no economically viable bourgeoisie because imperialism prevented it being created. What there is, is a stratum of people in the service of imperialism who have learned how to manipulate the apparatus of the state – the African petty bourgeoisie…The moment national liberation comes and the petty bourgeoisie takes power we enter, or rather return to history, and thus the internal contradictions break out again.” – Brief Analysis of the Social Structure in Guinea, 1969

The specific class relations are not addressed in Deep Space 9, but the issue of who is capable running a state, the fact that few will have the technical or literacy skills to do so, is certainly relevant. The people we see running Bajor are bureaucrats, former guerrillas and priests, who fit the bill of a petit-bourgeoisie well.

This is a concept that’s rarely brushed upon in mainstream Western fiction, so rarely concerned with the lives of the majority of humanity. The religious aspect is also to the forefront and similarly relevant for post-colonial societies. As opposed to most peoples in Star Trek, the Bajorans are highly religious, yet this aspect is not looked down upon in contemptuous new-atheist fashion, despite the Federation clearly embodying atheist ideals. It’s made clear that religious faith was something that united Bajorans against their oppressors: this is something particularly resonant in an era where radical Islam has grown as a force in many oppressed countries, and familiar to anyone who has studied the history of anti-colonial struggles in Algeria, Ireland and elsewhere. While avoiding condescension however the show is still clear about the dangers of religious fundamentalism as expressed in Kai Winn, yet to be introduced.

The civil strife, the radicals vs the moderates in government, the religious faith, the difficulties of building a state out of a revolutionary movement, all are personified in the character of Kira Nerys played by Nana Visitor, the most complex female character Trek has produced. Her internal conflict as to her new position as a part of this new Provisional government are rich and worthy of further analysis. Already in Emissary we can see she has been sidelined by a government more concerned with respectability and establishing a functioning state than of honouring its revolutionary commitments. And again we have the anti-colonial critique of the Federation expressed succinctly in Kira’s introductory scene:

KIRA: I don’t believe the Federation has any business being here.

SISKO: The provisional government disagrees with you.

KIRA: The Provisional Government and I don’t agree on a lot of things which is probably why they’ve sent me to this god-forsaken place. I have been fighting for Bajoran independence since I was old enough to pick up a phaser. We finally drive the Cardassians out and what do our new leaders do? They call up the Federation and invite them right in.

SISKO: The Federation is only here to help…

KIRA: Help us. Yes, I know. The Cardassians said the same thing sixty years ago.

The Federation as just another meddling imperialist power will be an ongoing theme throughout the series, as will the defence of revolutionary terror.

The Cardassian threat of course has not gone away, and throughout Emissary they threaten and mock their former colonial victims and go so far as to attack the outpost when conflict arises over the strategic point of the newly opened Wormhole. This ever-present threat itself serves as a useful parallel for the battle between the desire of post-colonial states for greater sovereignty, and the insatiable desire for territory and resources that drives the great powers.

Aims
You may have noticed that not a great deal of this post addresses the specifics of the show. Future posts on this blog won’t be as heavy on the theory side of things, but I see it as important to make it clear what priorities this ongoing analysis will have. Primarily the goal will be to look at the political underpinnings of Deep Space 9, from an unabashedly Marxist and anti-imperialist perspective, to tease out the thorny questions explored and reflect on trends in science fiction, mass media and western Anglo culture as a whole.

The aim will be to produce at least an article a week, largely going off of specific episodes and storylines in the show but examining wider trends as well. This series of posts will tend towards the critical, but rest assured the author has a deep and abiding love for the show. I believe that it is entirely possible to dissect the biases and political inclinations of a work of fiction and still enjoy it on other levels, even as the ideological underpinnings may drive one mad. There are plenty of writings out there about what makes Deep Space 9 such an excellent bit of entertainment but that isn’t the goal of this blog. There are also other socialist examinations of these series that I’ll examine on their own merits, though none as in depth as what will be attempted here. I hope that any readers who come across this will find some appreciation for it, Marxist or otherwise.

“What really is the Milky Way? Exactly speaking, it is a phantom; but a phantom of so wonderful a wealth of structures and forms, of bright and dark shapes, that, seen on dark summer nights, it belongs to the most beautiful scenes which nature offers to man’s eyes.”

Anton Pannekoek, A History of Astronomy (1951)

https://marxistds9.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/enter-the-wormhole-emissary-and-intro/

Enter the Wormhole: Emissary and Intro Emissary, the hour and a half long pilot episode of Star Trek Deep Space 9, aired January 3rd 1993. A radical departure from previous Star Trek series, the newfound serialisation and static setting…