User Reviews

It is a story oft told - in the name of progress, an old farmer must be relocated from the homestead he has lived in his whole life. In this case, the homestead is located on a Bajoran moon that is to become a major mining operation. Major Kira is sent to remove him. Farmer Mullibok is a strong, stubborn, somewhat curmudgeonly old man who is also wise, and oddly endearing. Major Kira comes not only respect him but like him and thus becomes torn as to what it is her duty to do and what is the right thing to do. She and Sisko have a fascinating, albeit brief discussion about this issue. This is a very good character development episode for Kira but it is Brian Keith as Mullibok who steals the show. It is a magnificent performance; what a fine actor Keith was. We come to care about Mullibok but as so often happens, there is no happy ending. And this distresses Kira as much as it does Mullibok - and the viewer.

The Bajoran government is planning to tap a nearby moon for energy and has evacuated the small population as the operation will make it uninhabitable. As Major Kira scans the surface she finds signs of life on the surface so beams down and discovers three people who are refusing to leave. As she gets to know the oldest of the three she grows to be sympathetic to his plight. When Bajoran security comes to take the group things go wrong and the man is wounded. Even so he refuses to leave and Kira insists on staying with him.

Meanwhile back on DS9 Quark is not pleased when his brother takes delivery of a large quantity of food which nobody except Cardassians like and not many Cardassians visit the station these days. Nog however sees it as a chance to make a profit, nobody on DS9 might want it but a ship heading to Cardassia might have something to trade for it and if that item has no obvious use they can always trade it to somebody who wants that.

While this episode wasn't packed with action it provided some good character development for Major Kira and the Jake/Rom subplot was better than most involving the station's two most commonly featured children. This episode also introduced the "self-sealing stem bolt" a piece of equipment that is mentioned several times throughout the series but who's use is never explained.

You won't find any "fall out of your seat" space adventure here, and the story itself isn't particularly original and doesn't break any new ground.

Two elements, however, raise this installment above average- first, the excellent casting of veteran actor Brian Keith as the defiant and spirited farmer, Mullibok, and an outstanding and emotional outing for Nana Visitor (Major Kira)as she is torn between her devotion to duty and her growing affection, empathy, and respect for the father like Mullibok.

Brian Keith was one of Hollywood's finest and most productive character actors, with a career that stretched all the way back to silent films. An expert at portraying "gruff and irascible but soft on the inside" characters, he is perfectly cast here, and delivers a powerful, moving, and multi-layered performance. The fact that Keith is so well known to viewers adds to the impact of the show, as his familiar face, voice, and personality reinforces the idea that this could be your grandpa or your uncle being forced to make major life changes in his twilight years.

Also adding to the emotional power and effectiveness of Brian Keith's performance is the fact that his role as Mullibok closely mirrored his own private life at the time; indeed, his later years were shadowed by personal tragedy, unwanted change, and health issues (just like his character in the show). Interestingly enough, this fine and respected actor ended up taking his own life just 4 years after appearing in this episode, in a classic case of art imitating life. Proud & dignified to the end (just like his character Mullibok), he chose to end his own life on his own terms in 1997 rather than submit to a long and debilitating terminal illness and the lifestyle changes that it was sure to bring.

Also in this episode, Nana Visitor (Major Kira)turns in an outstanding performance, and we get a good look past her cold, defiant exterior to see how lonely & desperate she is on the inside. Her scenes with Mullibok, especially when she stays to take care of him after he is injured, are among the most moving & emotional ever seen in the Star Trek Universe.

A silly and pointless "Jake & Nog" sub-plot focusing on their efforts to be businessmen is mildly amusing, but seems out of place here; mixing it in with the much more substantial and meaningful Major Kira/Mullibok storyline only serves to disrupt the emotional pacing of the show. In addition, their sub-plot has a "Brady Bunch" feel to it, and is just way too campy to have any real meaning. Star Trek is watched by a lot of kids, true, but it is not a kid's show, and efforts to make it such only detract from the whole.

Not the greatest Deep Space Nine installment, but well worth watching to see a great Hollywood legend in one of his final screen appearances.

1.14 "Progress"

The Bajoran government is planning to tap the molten core of one of its moons and transfer the energy to the planet to heat homes for the winter, but a stubborn old settler on the moon named Mullibok refuses to vacate. Kira tries and fails to convince him to leave, forcing her to choose between her duty and doing what is right.

This is classic moral dilemma Trek episode. A lot of time is spent (basically the entire episode) building a bond between Kira and Mullibok and much is made of her emotional turmoil, but essentially she is forced to choose between her duty and doing the right thing. It doesn't matter how many people the tap will help, the government has no right to forcefully relocate somebody who doesn't want to leave their home and their property. It's essentially the same thing as ethnic cleansing, even if ethnicity isn't involved. And even if it's just one person, it's still evil. As Picard asks in his legendary mini speech from Insurrection, "HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE, ADMIRAL?"

However, unlike Picard, Kira makes the utilitarian choice in the end. This could be an indication of DS9's more morally gray tone compared to TNG, but I think it has more to do with the way sci fi writers insist on writing women. I think they are afraid that if Kira made the right choice and refused to allow Mullibok to be forcefully relocated, that it would be seen as her being controlled by her emotions. In order to avoid being accused of sexism, the writers have her make the choice that is seen as being more rational, even though it is wrong. The same thing consistently happens on Voyager, where Janeway almost always makes the utilitarian choice rather than the one that protects individuals' rights and dignity. I believe this is due to the politically correct forces in Hollywood and it's extremely disappointing because it does a great disservice to the women on these shows. It's truly ironic that political correctness has the consequence of writers not being allowed to write good, complex female characters.

Then again, an argument can be made that the utilitarian choice is the only correct one according to Federation ethics. The Federation is essentially a socialist utopia (at least as presented by Roddenberry--DS9 ironically does a ton to subvert that notion). Socialism is a system of government for which trampling on the rights of individuals for the "common good" is a core tenant, so maybe all the times that Picard chooses to protect the rights of individuals over the collective utilitarian good is actually "wrong" by Federation ethical standards and Janeway is actually correct. That still doesn't explain Kira's choice in this ep, though, since she isn't part of the Federation. Not only is her choice wrong, but it is completely out of character for her and that is why I believe her actions were written the way they were in order to avoid accusations of sexism, rather than in service of the character and the story.

THE GOOD

-Mullibok is an interesting and charismatic character. He's equal parts frustrating and endearing. I think he is selfish and his decision not to leave is completely dictated by his fear of...basically everything. He is ruled by his fear. But I also respect him standing his ground against the government and feel bad for him with the way the ep ends.

-The moral dilemma is thought-provoking (obviously, considering I just wrote a mini essay on it...).

THE BAD

-Kira-centric ep. She's actually not terrible here, but she's also not great.

-The plot moves very slowly. It's a character-focused story and Brian Keith as Mullibok more than carries his weight, but Visitor lacks the charisma or acting chops to make such a slow story hold your interest completely.

-The B plot with the kids is not interesting. Also this is the third time in four eps that Jake and Nog have been featured in the B plot. It's getting pretty old. Give Dax something to do for once instead, please.

-Kira's choice at the end is very disappointing.

THE UGLY

-Runabout used: Ganges. No sensor module again, so it must really be removable.

-The kids not being able to figure out what a self-sealing stem bolt is is silly. I guess DS9 doesn't have the internet?

-It's fascinating that Bajor has a moon capable of supporting a breathable atmosphere. For a class M planet to have a moon massive enough to also hold that kind of an atmosphere, the moon would have to be pretty close to the same size as the planet. In fact, the planet and the moon would most likely be orbiting each other, much like Pluto and its moon Charon do. Pluto and Charon are tidally locked, so it's possible Bajor and Jerrado are as well, which would eliminate the possibility of destructive tidal forces that would otherwise be a consequence of such a massive moon, and also make an energy tap much easier, since the same point on Bajor is always aligned with the same point on Jerrado.

In "Progress" Kira must head to a Bajoran moon and convince an old farmer to evacuate so the Bajoran government can start tapping the satellite for energy. Meanwhile back on DS9, Nog and Jake find themselves in possession of some Cardassian sauce and keep bartering other goods in the hope of eventually getting their hands on some gold-pressed latinum.

This has been one of the better episodes of Season 1 and gives me hope for the series as a whole. We get some really good character development with Kira here. Brian Keith is one of the best guest actors the show's had so far and the two play off of each other nicely. The ambiguity of the ending is what really sells this episode for me. Will they remain friends? Will he survive? We don't know; we just get a sense of melancholy as we await the beam up...

I love the story telling in STDS9. This an old and moving story. The stubborn old man who refused to move. Like the carrecters and how the actors gave life to them. The comical relief on the spacestation was OK. Maby put there to balance the story.

This episode was a total snoozefest.

The storyline of Kira trying to relocate an old man from him home was dragged out to the point of monotony. We get it, he didn't want to leave. Perhaps if this is a theme that hadn't been explored numerous times in Trek series prior it would've worked. And the B storyline of Nog and Jake was equally nauseating.

I fast forwarded through most of it.