SDS9 – S5E4: "Nor the Battle to the Strong" (Patreon)

This episode was recorded on December 27, 2024.

We recap "Nor the Battle to the Strong," where we see the ugly side of space colonialism.

SDS9 seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 can be found wherever you stream Southpaw. Season 5 is only available to paid subscribers.

You can also listen to this episode directly from your favorite podcast player by following these instructions: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212055866-Subscribe-to-your-Audio-RSS-link-on-the-Patreon-app

(Note: Many phone plans come with Paramount+ for free. It can also come with your cable package, credit card, or in a bundle, so make sure to double-check. There are also other ways to watch DS9 that we're sure you internet space explorers can figure out. Otherwise, since Scott does such an excellent job with the play-by-play, you don't have to watch the episodes to enjoy our breakdowns.)

Transcript

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

This is Southpaw Deep Space Nine Season 5.

Deep Space Nine.

We are your hosts, Scott and Sam. On this Stardate, December 27th, 2024, we are discussing, Nor the Battle to the Strong.

At some point, we're going to have to do a musical episode.

I mean, not this one, but... Deep Space Nine.

We might need a lot of rehearsals. Scott, can you tell us about this episode?

Bashir talks to Jake about how genius he is for doing something amazing. At a science conference, they're on a runabout together. Jake is bored and starts writing in his mind. As we know, Jake is a writer. He's been taking some time to focus.

We've met future Jake, the novelist, and we've met Jake almost be destroyed by an alien muse. And, you know, they hear about Samori on Ajalon Prime. It's a Federation colony. They're under a Klingon attack despite the ceasefire. So Jake is like, we got to do something. Bashir understands the risk. And...

He also sees how this can help his lecture, so he goes. Jake has more writing thoughts. Deep Space Nine, Quark is trying to make a decaf Rattachino for the pregnant Kira, as many, at least for some of the physiologies we know, can't do caffeine. Odo, Miles, Pork, Worf talk about the weird pregnancy rituals on their culture,

while Kira and Jadzia lament of their own feelings. Jake will be home with Bashir in a few days, and during that time, Jadzia suggests that Ben poke through Jake's stuff. Bashir and Jake find a way to get to where they're going, and Bashir warns Jake that this could be heavy. Spoiler alert, it is.

In the area people are dying, they are triaging, which is something that happens in hospitals and medical areas of figuring out where things go. Jake doesn't know what to do and is seeing war and death in a way that he really hasn't seen. A man enters yelling, but his wound is that of a phaser.

He shot himself in the foot to avoid going to war. Jake keeps on daydreaming words. And, um, as he's doing that, he's asked to help. Bashir helps. Jake helps. They all help. This is war and war is violent and people get hurt and you have to help.

Jake starts taking on a medic like role and is horrified at the death. There's a montage. Um, And Bashir is struggling. On Deep Space Nine, Ben wants to talk to Odo. And Odo talks about doing Odo cop stuff and how he's been trying to morph, but he can't. Because as we talked about, he can't morph.

He's not a changeling right now, and he hurt himself. And Ben warns Odo of pain. and is worried about Jake, and talks about the passing of time, and how Jake used to be little, and now he is 18, and the fatherly need to protect while knowing that you cannot protect everything.

And this notion that the Ciscos are warriors, worriers, and warriors, but worriers. And Odo, being Odo, talks about parentage as a waste. Jadzia enters bad news. Klingons destroyed the Farragut near Lumbada Cluster. They don't have reinforcements. So Ben and Jadzia are going to head to Ajalon Prime, where his son and Bashir are.

They're going on the Defiant, which is their little warship. Bashir and Jake are trying to have a moment, but everyone is hurting. Basically, they talk about the sadness and the pain and destruction of war. And what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Jake and his new friend are eating. They're bonding. They worry.

Jake just wants to be a writer. And that's when his internal monologue happens again. And this is a moment where he realized that this is one of the first times where his father can't protect him. Boom! People are dying. They need energy. They're running out of power. So...

Bashir and Jake offer to go to the runabout to use it as a generator. They go. They're attacked. They run. They jump. Action happens. And Jake runs away. He sees bodies. He panics. He sees a wounded soldier who is knocked down. And he's bitter at his obvious death that is coming and wants to die. facing the sky.

Jake is filled with guilt. He wants to help, but is dismissed. And this man dies in pain, and Jake runs once more. Ben is working on the Defiance Replicators, and Jadzia shares a story about a daughter in a past life. That was in danger but survived. Ben appreciates how the story ends and is appreciative of the positivity.

But he just wants to get to his son. Jake finds Kirby and his buddy Bashir is injured. But he got some electric burns saving the generator. Jake is... feeling so much guilt and talks to Bashir but Bashir is just apologetic that he put Jake in danger and again Jake is just angry and guilty and emotional and distraught

and he has another monologue so he uh He delivers the guy who shot himself in the foot. He makes jokes. They bond over their shared shame. And this soldier doubts he belongs and figures he'll find a job not being a soldier after all this, even though he thinks a bunch, you know,

it's going to be hard for him and maybe just do some mining, you know, uh, Jake loses his temper at the medics around him who are using Gallo's humor to get through their pain. And again, Jake just chides the stupidity of war. Bashir tries to talk to Jake. Jake shuts him down. And having a moment, cries.

and explosions happen. Jake awake, gets awoken. There's an evacuation ordered. Jake hides again. Klingons breach the cave. Fire's pinned down, panicking. Jake just starts blasting wildly. There's a collapse. The Klingons are buried, and everyone is able to escape. Bashir wakes Jake, Ben is back, and I guess the ceasefire is on again. They start calling Jake a hero,

but obviously Jake feels ashamed and admits that he acted of fear. He ran and he shot. And that was all fear-based. And through that, he writes the story of what happened. And he shares it with his father, Ben, who is moved by his honesty and actually finds it to be quite brave and is proud of

the promising prose of his son.

So in this episode, we find out Jake is 18 and now an adult. This was, in a way, his growing up and reality check or coming out episode. So think about who he is and was in previous episodes when you think about past episodes with Jake and how wrong some of it was because it involved the kid.

Yeah. This show has problems. Don't kid yourself. Yes, of course. This also connects back to what we talked about previously in the last episode about how liberals don't get power dynamics or even consent. Now, to your point, this is a war is hell episode. Actually, I think you said that in the last episode. Yeah.

Yeah.

So it had themes of this is all stupid and all sides are stupid and we are all stupid, which is also a very Western liberal take, flattening all sides to be the same and that atrocities happen out of stupidity. This really bothers me because I hear that so often now with the genocide of Palestine.

I hear complicit libs say, oh, they're all just so stupid. They're all being stupid. So on top of being genocided, the victims of genocide are also stupid, according to Western libs. The thing we all ought to realize now is you don't have to be white to be Western.

We saw so much of that Western solidarity during the elections among liberals. And that take of they're also stupid have been said to me by non-white libs just as much as white libs. In the last episode, I mentioned how libs don't think about power when it comes to relationships. The same is true of colonialism.

It's two groups trying to colonize the same land, and no one's like, why are you there? Who gave you permission to be there or to do that? They treat expansion as natural when it's a political project and always forced. What I did like is how they showed Jake as a 18 year old boy,

not some teen stud courting an adult woman, but still a boy. Forget that he's 18. He's still a kid and he's scared. So rather than writing him as a hero, they made him more real, a scared kid. But that bravery is in telling the truth about your actions, which is more adult than a lot of adults.

There's more and more a push to listen to, quote unquote. And you hope whoever you're listening to will be like Jake and just tell the messy truth rather than an idealized, romanticized story, which DS9 has done episodes about as well, using listen to to spread romanticized lies for what they believe to be the greater

good or for a greater cause. Here, Jake doesn't do that. And from Bashir's facial reaction, it doesn't make Jake look good to him, nor does it do some greater good for the Federation or Jake, but he does it anyway. He tells the truth. You hope that's what journalism is, but it's often that. U.S.

journalism often overlooks for the greater good of U.S. interests over the world. We push for listened to and lived experience because we hope everyone will be like Jake. That's the hope. Scott, can you tell me your thoughts about this episode, your rating, and the mythology?

So the mythology is not super high because aside from the development of Jake as a writer, because this part of the war... changes and um it changes pretty quickly so while war is hell is something that is really important to me in practical thought and in understanding liberation um and

But I'm not going to give a monologue by Sankara right now. You know what I mean? This episode is not that important to me. It's hard for any of this season to get less than a 3.5 because this season is just really where things pick up but it's a 3.5 only because of the acting and the ideas

okay so this incident isn't canon to some later storytelling not that I can

remember honestly like season 6 season 7 it's like everything is pretty much episodic where here it's a little looser But the show is better. They got, like, Ronald D. Moore is killing it. The writing room is really taking a new place. They're starting to understand that what people like about the show is the gray.

The characters are growing. Jake is growing. Ben is growing. Quark is even growing a little bit. So, but I'm sorry, man. It's a bit of a filler.

I think in one of the previous seasons, I said we've seen character growth from everybody, even some of the side characters more than we have from Jake. Jake is pretty flat and hasn't really grown. And I would say, at least for me, this seemed like the episode where he grew.

And so now after this episode, you could write him in a different way than you wrote him before. And I think This episode at least did that. Took the character from point A and placed him in point B, and now you can move on from point B.

Correct. So it's good for that. There is some character development that is very important to have for Jake. And Jake grows up throughout the show, and that's important.

And now he's much more interesting. And in this episode, he wasn't Jake, Ben Sisko's son. He was just Jake. He was his own character. So I think that was also important too.

Absolutely.

Can you tell us about the next episode?

Miles and Keiko.

Oh. Until then...