Finally, a Star Trek series has a female character (more than one) to carry an episode without strain. With "Progress," DS9 avoids Voyager's mistake (whatever happened with those Maquis-Starfleet tensions?), paying off Kira as the former terrorist bending to politics. Here, her agonized arc recalls Admiral Jarok (James Sloyan) in TNG "The Defector," with Sisko attenuating Picard's dressing-down of a traitor.
It's tempting to overrate "Progress," but the stalling isn't all Mullibok's. This is another DS9 that's sci-fi just barely, indeed, torching a farmer's hut likely caused a few Vietnam flashbacks (it's questionable this scene would've gained approval for a 1970s or 80s episode).
"Progress" works because of the cast, with Brian Keith one of the franchise's great guest stars. Just as Star Trek has Westerns in its DNA, before his Family Affair Keith starred in Nevada Smith (with Steve McQueen) and Sam Peckinpah's The Deadly Companions, while gracing dozens of TV series; he was the lead in Peckinpah's short-lived The Westerner.
Like Charlton Heston in Will Penny, Keith in "Progress" lends instant weight to the study of a formidable pioneer turned victim, because aged at epochal change.
** Trivia question: which DS9 guest dares address Kira Nerys as "girl," "child," and "dear"? If a clue is needed, Mullibok also reckons her "halfway pretty." **
** In the B-story, "self-sealing stembolts" might've been inspired by the self-sealing bags available to comics and magazine collectors, a group which includes a few Star Trek fans and reviewers. **
It's tempting to overrate "Progress," but the stalling isn't all Mullibok's. This is another DS9 that's sci-fi just barely, indeed, torching a farmer's hut likely caused a few Vietnam flashbacks (it's questionable this scene would've gained approval for a 1970s or 80s episode).
Like Charlton Heston in Will Penny, Keith in "Progress" lends instant weight to the study of a formidable pioneer turned victim, because aged at epochal change.
** Trivia question: which DS9 guest dares address Kira Nerys as "girl," "child," and "dear"? If a clue is needed, Mullibok also reckons her "halfway pretty." **
** In the B-story, "self-sealing stembolts" might've been inspired by the self-sealing bags available to comics and magazine collectors, a group which includes a few Star Trek fans and reviewers. **
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