Television Review: Battle Lines (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S1x13, 1993)

Battle Lines (S01E13)

Airdate: 25 April 1993

Written by: Richard Danus & Evan Carlos Sommers
Directed by: Paul Lynch

Running Time: 46 minutes

Star Trek has changed immeasurably since the days of The Original Series, particularly in the ways the shows of the so-called Golden Age of the franchise—The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager—strove to be more complex and nuanced than their predecessor. Deep Space Nine, with its frontier setting, morally ambiguous characters, and stories steeped in the aftermath of occupation and war, looked very far indeed from the original utopian vision of Gene Roddenberry. Yet, even in DS9 there were episodes that wore their TOS-like idealism on their sleeve, and one of the earliest examples in Season 1 was Battle Lines, an instalment that wears its anti-war allegory as conspicuously as a Bajoran earring.

The episode opens with Major Kira being infuriated after Sisko and the rest of the crew retrieve Gul Dukat’s personnel files from the days of Cardassian rule, which describe Kira as a minor and insignificant operative—a calculated slight that cuts deep for a woman who fought in the Resistance. Kira is, on the other hand, given the high honour of hosting Kai Opaka, the Bajoran religious leader who has never left Bajor. Kai Opaka expresses a desire to inspect not only the wormhole but the area beyond—the Gamma Quadrant. Sisko grants her wish and boards her onto the Yangtze-Kiang runabout, where they are also accompanied by Dr. Bashir and Kira.

During their expedition, they stumble upon a signal and begin to investigate. It leads them to a moon with a network of satellites, one of which fires upon the Yangtze-Kiang, forcing it to crash-land on the moon. The moon has a habitable atmosphere, but Kai Opaka has died in the crash. Soon the survivors find themselves dealing with a group of locals called the Ennis, whose leader, Golin Shel-la (Jonathan Banks), explains that they are at war with a rival group called the Nol-ennis. The ensuing attack by the Nol-ennis leads to vicious hand-to-hand combat, which is interrupted by Kira’s use of a phaser. Kira is then amazed to find Kai Opaka alive, apparently resurrected, but also many Ennis killed in the battle.

As Chief O’Brien and Dax on Deep Space Nine begin to search for the missing runabout and slowly reconstruct its flight path and a way to make contact with the survivors, it turns out that the Ennis and Nol-ennis have been locked in endless warfare over an issue they have actually forgotten, and that the war continues because none of the participants can die. Dr. Bashir discovers that both factions were put on the moon as punishment, and that their immortality is the result of a special kind of local nano-robot-like microbes. Sisko tries to end the war through negotiations, but this fails. Just as contact with O’Brien and Dax is re-established, Kai Opaka—who has learned that the microbes will not work outside the moon, resulting in instant death if she leaves—volunteers to stay behind and help both factions reach a peace in a way Sisko failed to achieve.

The script, by Richard Danus and Evan Carlos Sommers, based on a story by Hilary Bader, posits an interesting scenario: two factions embroiled in an endless and pointless war that they cannot end because they have become so accustomed to it, and so consumed by hatred. In some ways, the premise is very much like the classic, albeit over-didactic, TOS episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, which featured the black-and-white Cheronians Lokai and Bele locked in a similarly futile conflict over the colour of their skin—one half white, one half black. Roddenberry’s heart was in the right place, but the message was delivered with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Battle Lines suffers from a similar didacticism, though it at least benefits from a more interesting setting and a less cartoonish depiction of its warring factions.

What saves this episode is decent direction by Paul Lynch, some great stunt work in the battle scenes, and Jonathan Banks, one of the most formidable character actors in the business—best known to modern audiences as Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad—playing one of the faction leaders with a weary, lived-in gravitas. Camille Saviola, who played Kai Opaka in the DS9 premiere, is also very good, bringing dignity and gravitas to her character; her decision to stay on the moon is genuinely affecting.

On the other hand, Nana Visitor goes to absolute hamminess while conveying deep sorrow over the death of the Bajoran spiritual leader. Her overwrought performance in the crash-landing aftermath is one of the episode’s weaker elements, a rare misstep for an actress who usually handles Kira’s emotional range with more restraint.

The episode nevertheless works, and it ends just in time for the audience not to notice many of its flaws, such as the character of Dax being misused and, despite being the ship’s science officer, relying on Chief O’Brien to find solutions to the problems. It is a classic case of an episode that coasts on its premise and pacing rather than on the rigour of its character work.

In the end, Battle Lines is not essential viewing, and it is not particularly memorable in the grand pantheon of Deep Space Nine episodes. But it is nevertheless a solid piece of DS9—a competently executed, thematically earnest work of television that, while never reaching the heights of the series’ best, does not embarrass itself either. For fans of the franchise, it is a worthwhile, if unspectacular, entry in the early, still-finding-its-feet first season.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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