SDS9 – S4E4: "Hippocratic Oath" (Audio + Transcript) (Patreon)

This episode was recorded on March 21, 2024.

Sam and Scott discuss "Hippocratic Oath," where Dr. Julian Bashir tries to do good, and Chief Miles O'Brien doesn't.

SDS9 seasons 1, 2, and 3 can be found wherever you stream Southpaw. Season 4 is only available to paid subscribers.

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Transcript

[Note: Transcripts are autogenerated and may contain errors.]

We are back with Southpaw Deep Space Nine Season 4. If you don't know what SDS9 is, it's Southpaw's completest DS9 watch-along show where we watch every episode, recap it, and analyze it. We are your hosts, Scott and Sam. Scott is someone who's watched DS9 more than once.

Whereas I'm someone who's casually watched some episodes when it first aired, but this is my first time watching each episode in earnest. One of the cool things is this gives us different perspectives, different contexts. After we watch each episode, we come together and talk about it. Scott gives us the play-by-play along with his insights while I analyze scenes that stuck out for me from a political perspective or a media studies perspective or sometimes even an emotional perspective.

We are discussing Hippocratic Oath. Scott, will you tell us about this episode? Yeah, so like this hippo is like, yo, I'm hungry. No, I'm joking. On Quark's, Worf is trying to find wanted fugitives. Quark makes fun of Worf and also has this sort of missive about how mugshot photos and photos of criminals are pretty bad.

Kira talks to Worf. Worf believes that Cork is plotting some sort of crime and is onto him. Bashir and Miles are on a runabout on a science trip. Miles is complaining about Keiko. They're having distant relationship issues, and

As this is happening, Miles is getting some weird energy read from this planet Bopac-3, this Magnation Pulse, Warp Core, Magnet Surge, and they're pulled into the planet in Crashland. They are met by members of the Jem'Hadar, you know, the ruthless soldier people of the Dominion, um,

The Jem'Hadar soldiers immediately notice the ranks of Miles and Bashir and think about how they can use them as capital. On Deep Space Nine, Worf is asking Odo why he allows Quark to do crime. Why is he doing crime? Why isn't he stopping him from doing crime?

Odo says, I know what I'm doing. And Ben promises Worf, it's all good. Just like trust Odo, he knows how to be a cop. He's the best cop. Worf is reminded that he's focused on strategy now. He's not security. Trust Odo, trust the process.

Bashir sees that the Jem'Hadar people are sick and worried, which means some shit could pop off. Bashir is brought to help the Jem'Hadar squad. They need him to help him, but right now Bashir is not sure he wants to. But they sort of know that because Bashir is a doctor, the Hippocratic Oath, where you have to help people, that he'll want to help. You see,

The Jem'Hadar are addicted to Ketracel White, which is this drug created by the Dominion and the Founders. It controls them, and they have this symbiotic relationship where they need it, and if they don't have it, they'll die. It's basically drug blackmail, and they hope that Bashir can help them

not be addicted and break the cycle and not be reliant on this drug. Because this group of Jem'Hadar are tired of being slaves, but there's five days left of this Ketracel White. But we meet this one dude who he tapered out on the White while he was on a solo mission. And he was on this planet, so he believes that

this planet can heal, catch yourself withdrawal, that there's something special about it because the squad is dying and they just like, they, they need Bashir to help and they need miles to help and they better get to it because there's, there's five days left. It's going to get bad. It's going to get ugly.

On Deep Space Nine, the Klingons are scheming. As we remember, the Klingons are now sort of like not rocking with Starfleet and the Federation anymore. And they started a fight with the Cardassians. It's not chill. It's not very cash money. Worf believes that Quark is smuggling crystals and wants Odo to arrest Quark and the smuggler. And Odo tells Worf to chill out. Just trust me. I'm the best cop. Leave me alone.

Miles and Bashir are working on fixing the ship, but Miles may have a way to escape and blast at the Jem'Hadar. Bashir is trying to figure out how to help cure the withdrawal. At this point, there are three days left of the Ketrasal White.

Bashir's trying to test the plants to see if they have healing effects, if that maybe is what's going on. Then there's a skirmish between some Jem'Hadar and Miles. But this leader, he's different, and he wants to break the cycle of what the Jem'Hadar are known of. And on Deep Space Nine, Worf is trailing the supposed crystal deal. Worf spies on them. He sees the quirk.

is just chilling, but he stalks, quirks, and eventually the smuggler comes and they do a trade. Worf goes to Odo and criticizes Odo for not stopping the crystal drug trade. And again, Odo tells Worf to chill out and is tired of Worf being a cop. Bashir realizes that the leader dude of

this Jem'Hadar squad is creating natural Ketracel White. It's some sort of anomaly. So the Jem'Hadar still need Ketracel White, but he's figured out how to make it instead of needing it. And then Bashir tells the story of the baby Jem'Hadar that we met last season. And what's interesting is that these Jem'Hadar have never actually seen a founder before.

In real life, they consider them gods. They really only interact with the Vorta, where they get to catch themselves from. And this is when Miles...

really sucks he doesn't believe that the you know we finally get the name of the main dude he doesn't believe that he's righteous and bashir believes that the jemadar may actually be totally different if they weren't dependent on drugs and circumstances and war and manipulation

And Miles is surprisingly xenophobic and victim-blaming, and Miles believes that if you help the Jem'Hadar, you help the Dominion. Bashir is technically the senior officer and orders Miles to stop being whack and to help. But as Miles is searching for something to help on the runabout, he beams out.

Bashir can't find anything on the planet that can explain the anomaly of the healed withdrawal. And time is running out. And Gerenganar orders that Miles is to be returned alive. And by doing that, he's lost the respect of his squad. On Deep Space Nine, Quark is getting ready to celebrate and trade some crystals.

Worf busts the crystal operation to arrest them. And guess what? The crystals are the friends we made along the way. No, it's not. It's Odo. Odo wanted the deal to go through because he didn't care about this small-time crystal smuggler. He wanted to find the big smuggler. He was trying to find the space El Chapo. He was trying to stop the crystal smuggling business.

But Worf messed up the loyalty. He got the supply chain way too low. Miles saves Bashir and begs him to leave. But Bashir's Hippocratic Oath won't let him. He feels that he has to help. He's ready to heal. And that Miles can leave, but Bashir's going to stay.

Miles tries to knock out Bashir. The white is running out. But our main man, Garanganar, allows Miles and Bashir to leave. Bashir doesn't understand. And Garanganar says, ask Miles. And Miles explains that as he's the leader of the troop, he can't leave. That's just not how it goes.

On Deep Space Nine, Worf goes to Ben to apologize for his behavior. Ben explains that on Deep Space Nine, you're going to deal with greys and grey areas a lot, and that Quark is a shade of grey, and in order to enjoy Deep Space Nine, he needs to not deal in absolutes.

Miles and Bashir arrive home. Miles technically could be court-martialed, but Bashir chooses against it. And Chad smiles for condemning the Jem'Hadar to die a painful drug death. It's not cool. So early on and throughout the episode, Worf was being more cop than Odo.

I didn't want to say I told you so to online DS9 fans, but yeah, Starfleet are the real cops. I mean, there's lots of cops here. You can't just go by titles. You got to go by structures, ranks, and behaviors. Worf was such a cop, he was backseat copping. But then the way the show tied the subplot that seemed unrelated to the main plot of O'Brien and Bashir, but then actually had everything to do with it, was seamless.

It was well done. It had a lot of thematic connections. Then we find some Jem'Hadar rebels, people who don't want to be enslaved anymore, who want to be free of the opiate of the masses and of the dominion. It was very radical, but at the same time, it felt like a 90s war on drugs episode, which didn't seem so radical. Now, we can make a case how the country that began the war on drugs

For them, the real drugs or the opiate of the masses is their media that distracts us, misinforms us, and disassociates us from our real material conditions. We think we are free because you can say shit online and you have a million things you can never watch because you don't have the freedom to watch it because none of us have free time and free time keeps diminishing every year.

Work days are longer. Our dinners keep getting pushed back later and later. People don't eat breakfast anymore because they don't have time. We just have less time. The war on drugs also made it seem like

You're only unfree if you have an addiction. There was a different side to the war on drugs because it wasn't just about criminalizing and abusing victims and also people just trying to have fun and also a way to commit atrocities across the world and maintain your hegemony. But it was also to tell

Americans, domestically, that you're completely free. We're keeping you free. We're protecting your freedom, meaning freedom from drugs. Drugs is what's making you unfree. And so long as you don't have drugs, you're not doing drugs, you are free. It was that gaslighting. Jemadar are not free, but O'Brien and Bashir are free. But are they really free? No, they're not, which this episode addressed.

Now, there's episodes where O'Brien is tortured, which this episode had a bit of, but there's also episodes where O'Brien is being problematic, dehumanizing, and racist, and this episode was also that. There were explicit episodes in the past where they used O'Brien to address space racism. He's using all the race science. Those people are just like this. Material conditions don't matter. They're super predators. Very racist cop.

Racist foreign policy cop. Just a lot of things we're used to with the U.S. Very Bush, very Clinton. They were using O'Brien to make critiques. I mean, O'Brien was once on trial for crimes against humanity, against Cardassia. We've seen him in previous episodes where he was very racist against the Jem'Hadar child. So I like how they're showing even a beloved character has serious flaws and someone who can sometimes seem wholesome and pure can have an evil streak to him.

O'Brien's not the only one. We've seen problems with Bashir as well. So who is Bashir to talk? Which I think is perfect for this episode, right? Because we already know what Bashir is like, Dr. Horny, and in the mirror universe, he just murdered Odo. Scott, what did you think about the use of O'Brien in this episode to talk about the flaws and even evils of quote-unquote good people? I was very frustrated. I think it...

was poor choices because when Miles is played as a xenophobic person who just sort of believes that the world is crooked and people are fucked and everyone is evil, I just don't really think that that

I don't think that's the right character. This is like the same dude that's like a family man believes in the good in people is sometimes a bit of adult, but is also like talks about unions and revolution. And it's just very surprising that he is like, you know, the, these, um,

drug-addicted child soldiers are screwed and we shouldn't help them. Because these are child soldiers. Remember, the Jem'Hadar, they grow really fast. Their... Their substance... Their... How do you say this? Polysubstance-using child soldiers. So...

It's just kind of fucked up. It makes me very upset. I know that they want to create this bromance of Miles and Bashir. I just don't buy it. But going back to lack of freedom or even cops and Starfleet, Bashir in this episode pulled rank and said, if you're in Starfleet and you're a lower rank, you have no freedom, which draws immediate parallels to Jem'Hadar. How different is Starfleet?

Then we had O'Brien escaping, which put Bashir at risk, like immediately. So O'Brien isn't just thinking of killing Jem'Hadar. He did something that could have killed Bashir. He's selfish. Yes. Then he says he did it to save Bashir, but then denies Bashir's consent in wanting to stay and condemns the Jem'Hadar rebels to death. These child soldiers who've been abused by the system.

Bashir literally said he was condemning them to death. So this isn't just our reading, it's explicit. Condemning the freedom fighters to death. He said it was to save Bashir

But his actions nearly killed him. So that's also hard to buy based on his actions. So was killing the rebels really about Bashir and saving him? Or was it just about sentencing them to death because O'Brien hates them? We can't ever know which this episode is about. Maybe it was a preachy episode. I don't know. The writing purposely left that unclear.

Because we saw immediately that O'Brien was not protecting Bashir. We also know O'Brien didn't see them as people and likened them to animals, which Bashir also called out, which is supposed to make the audience recognize that, that that happened. O'Brien was not about any Hippocratic oath in this episode. This all connects to the subplot with Odo, Sisko, and Worf.

Worf and Odo have miscommunication, which reminds me of when police have miscommunication with Sheriff's Department or ATF have miscommunication with FBI or the police or the police with the FBI or FBI with the CIA. Yes, cops can have problems with cops.

Having problems with cops does not mean you are not a cop because cops can also have squabbles. But in this episode, Cisco explains how DS9 is different from the Enterprise and really Starfleet. Starfleet and Starships are more rigid, more rules-based, cop-like. Cisco literally says out loud, just so you don't miss it, DS9 is more great.

welcoming this new character to DS9, telling him explicitly what exposition, what it's all about, and how he should view and the audience should view all the people there. In this episode, O'Brien and Quark had similar roles. They're great. The two plots were also about the lack of autonomy once you put on the uniform.

But O'Brien acted against the uniform in this episode to break bad. And Worf followed the conduct of the uniform and was also being bad. Like the man said, great.

But I don't know how I feel about the writers having Cisco just say that explicitly. You could say it was too on the nose. You could say, to your point, Scott, a lot of this felt forced. But at the same time, we have to think about context. Would kids watching this in the 90s pick up on some of these themes if you didn't say that outright? Or maybe it's to say this is, again, a fresh start and new DS9 and a different Trek show and just welcoming fans and telling them what's up.

What did you think about this type of explicit writing, kind of forced writing, maybe from your perspective, and the episode as a whole? And I will say I still enjoyed this episode, but I want to know what your opinion is, and please tell me if you didn't like the episode. So I didn't like the episode, and that's because of the poor...

writing of miles and the moral of the story of being like, fuck drug addicts. That didn't work. That didn't work for me. Uh, the side story of just like showing wharf, like,

This isn't your mom, Star Trek. Yes. This is different Star Trek. So... Very explicit. You better chill out, bro. And let Odo be the cop, because you're not the cop anymore. You're Worf now, man. No subtlety. There was no subtlety. And I just... Without going into great detail...

I do work in... Let's say I do social work-y type stuff. Let's say that, right? And the current crisis in America is what is being...

pushed off as dope because what used to be street heroin is just not what is being provided to most users of injectable drugs in America.

It's pretty much a mix. You know, you could look into it, but the world's access to heroin and poppy and opium is at a much lower level.

access point and you could look at geographically and politically why that might be political economy right so what has happened in the past few years that might have us have less access to opium right so the what people are doing is mostly fentanyl

cut with baby powder, cut with xylosine. What's that? Oh, it's an animal tranquilizer, but it's not ketamine. It's like a vasoconstrictor. Basically, it gives fentanyl the sort of euphoria that heroin gives. But unfortunately...

It has an incredibly rough side effect that it sort of like eats your body away. You sort of have seen how right now the world of America of polysubstance use, which remember

Addiction is a disease. It's not a character flaw. It's not a judgment. It is a disease. And that is the main drug that is gripping

young users of of drugs right now more so than meth more so than anything and you see if you if you're listening to this you've probably loved an addict at one point you see that they're not bad people but they're at the fulcrum of this very difficult thing so by contextualizing

that the Jem'Hadar are drug-addicted child soldiers, it makes me, as a social working adjacent person, unable to just hate them. Because you're like, wait, they didn't ask for this. And when you meet these characters that are like, let's break the cycle, Miles is like, you can't break the cycle. They're drug-addict child soldiers.

And I just feel that Miles O'Brien wouldn't feel that way. What's also interesting, right, is this is your context now as an adult, which might be different from how you might have viewed it back then. I definitely had a different view on people that, I mean, I probably called them drug addicts when I was that age. And I had a lot more judgment of it.

And maybe you wouldn't have thought this episode was even being that meaningful. No, I probably thought it was dumb. Yeah, maybe back then, if somebody's listening to you, right, they might be like, it's not that deep, bro. You're reading too much into it, bro. Mm-hmm. Which, again, is about context, right? It's all about how we view it as who we are now and back then. But now it's just very difficult for me, knowing what I know about polysubstance use, to like...

judge the Jem'Hadar even though I know that they do some not great things. Something I write a lot about in the liberation martial arts curriculum, a lot of it is about theory and pedagogy. It's very different from what people think it is because it's not just about martial arts for lefties or lefty fighting, self-defense stuff. It's just

Starting from scratch. And how do we start from scratch? We look at, well, what are the influences that constructed our thinking about just learning period, right? Not just martial arts, because it's all the same. The way we think about learning period, not just martial arts, it's all the same. And it comes from coloniality. So that's a key crux to LMAs, breaking down what that is and how to recognize it, move away from it, and build something else.

how do we have an alternative to coloniality? And one of the things I write about is how in coloniality,

They give you disease for the malady. They give you a malady. And then instead of giving you a cure, because the cure would be the end of coloniality, they're not going to do that. They give you disease. So something important that you brought up that I don't want people to miss and I want to unpack further is you started getting into the political economy, right? And we have to get into the US war in Afghanistan and so many wars in the Middle East and supply of poppies.

But the U.S. is not going to want to blame itself for what it was doing, right? Or the vacuum of that. They're just going to be like, no, no, no, these foreign agents, these people are trying to, they always say that it's these foreign assets, these foreign agents always trying to brainwash Americans, whether it's through the media or it's, they've been doing this even during the beginning of the civil rights, that the civil rights all started because of foreign agents.

They're always trying to brainwash you. They're doing that with TikTok. They're doing that with drugs. They're just trying to do this. Instead of thinking about, first, what created this vacuum for something worse to happen, right? You could think about Iraq as well.

the vacuum. You could think about Libya. And then also, yes, it's a disease. But the way we have to think about diseases like this in colonialism is diseases are often meant to cure something else. They give you disease to cure something else. So what's this other thing that the disease is trying to cure, right? We're talking about alienation.

like poverty, feeling like life doesn't matter, lack of community, or so much of like loss of free time that I mentioned earlier. There's so many things that we don't have. We're just very alienated. I was reading a study about video games and why that's so popular.

And this is no judgment about video games, but I think it is related in that for many kids, they gravitate to video games because it's the only time they can play that's unsupervised, unsurveilled, where they're free. And no adult is telling them what to do. And that really hit me. I was like, fuck, that's true. Man, their life is so limited. And then same thing with adults, right? You think about work, you think about

coming up through childhood, school, then now work. It's like, when do you ever have time where you could actually play as an adult and some supervisor, somebody above you isn't telling you what to do, where you can self-determine, where you have autonomy, right? Video games, yes, they are fun, but also in a way it is trying to cure something, right? It is the only thing we've been left, the only thing we're allowed to where we have some amount of freedom and fun, right? Because we have, we're suffocated.

Something else I talk about is like breathing and just pay attention to how often you're holding your breath because we're constantly suffocated. And whenever I tell this to people, they tell me how often they notice they're holding their breath because there's stuff around them making them hold their breath all the time, right? We're bracing, we're suffocating. So there's a greater underlying disease

And that's colonialism. That's capitalism. That's Western hegemony. So even drugs at its worst, right, can be harmful. Can it be its own disease? It's a disease trying to cure a different disease because the U.S. will never blame itself, will never frame itself as the disease. Yeah, absolutely. What number do you give this episode? Three stars. Okay. Scott, can you tell us about the next episode?

Kira and Ducat don't like each other. Until then...