January 3rd, 1993, "Emissary"
Fiver by Zeke
The Episode
On Stardate 43997, Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise was kidnapped for six days by an invading force known as the Borg. Surgically altered, he was forced to lead an assault on Starfleet at Wolf 359.
43997 fits the general timeline (on 43996.2 Picard recorded a log while the Enterpise was hiding in the dust cloud). Riker recorded a log on 44001 after the first attempt to rescue Picard. This is about two days after assimilation.
"Family" was 44012. That's four days later. Oops.
CAPTAIN: (a Vulcan) Red alert.
We never learn the name of the captain of the Saratoga in canon. The novelization says it's Storil, the novel Saratoga says Saros, the game Crossroads of Time says Sutik. I think I believe the novelization the most.
Stardate 46379.1. Three years later.
That's two and a half years later. Ugh.
(Through a viewing window we see a circular space station with three curved vertical spines above and below. Oh, you know what it looks like.)
I wouldn't describe the pylons as "vertical spines", Chakoteya!
O'BRIEN: When my wife Keiko saw our quarters, she started talking about visiting her mother in Kumamoto.
Kumamoto is a city in southern Japan.
JAKE: Dad, there is nothing to sleep on in there except a cushion on the floor.
Seriously? People act like the Cardassians just left a couple days ago, but I would certainly wait until there were proper quarters in place before bringing civilians on board. I know that the Enterprise is busy, but there wasn't a smaller starship that could hang around to ensure a peaceful transition?
JAKE: Is this the food replicator?
O'BRIEN: I'm afraid they're all offline. There's plenty of emergency rations. I could send some down.
You don't bring Federation civilians to a place that doesn't even have reliable replicators. Duh. Especially when we've seen that portable replicators the size of vending machines exist.
O'BRIEN: I'd like to ask the designer what he was thinking about when they built this place. I still haven't been able to find an ODN access.
That's 'cause this is a Cardassian station, Miles! Their tech is completely different! Even if Dukat isn't feeling charitable enough to leave behind a DS9 tech manual, this can't be the first time that Starfleet has encountered Cardassian tech.
Seriously, the writers overdid the "grungy" bit WAY TOO MUCH.
SISKO: Is it my imagination or is it unusually warm?
O'BRIEN: The environmental controls in Ops are stuck at thirty-two C. We're working on it.
That's 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Like I said, they're overdoing it.
KIRA: Because I have the bad habit of telling the truth even when people don't want to hear it.
SISKO: Perhaps I want to hear it.
KIRA: I don't believe the Federation has any business being here.
So who does, Kira? Odds are the Bajorans wouldn't have found the wormhole by themselves, not for a few years at least. Let's face it, without Federation support Bajor would've spent decades rebuilding, and that's presuming that the Cardassians didn't swoop back five years from now after rebuilding their military to take Bajor back.
SISKO: The Federation is only here to help
KIRA: Help us. Yes, I know. The Cardassians said the same thing sixty years ago.
Not to be a jerk, but the situations aren't remotely parallel. I definitely get the feeling that Bajor's first contact was with the Cardassians, who took advantage. The Bajorans are older and wiser now, they wouldn't let the situation happen again.
Oh, and the precise length of the Occupation will fluxuate A LOT in coming episode. Eventually the creators will settle on fifty years, but you'll hear forty years from time to time in coming episodes. You'd think something this simple could be set in stone before filming.
SISKO: Major, when I was ordered here, I requested a Bajoran national as my first officer.
You had to request that? The Bajorans wouldn't insist on one of their own in this position, just like the Vulcans and T'Pol?
ODO: I don't allow weapons on the Promenade. That includes phasers.
Good luck enforcing that, Odo!
SISKO: It's been a long time, Captain.
PICARD: Have we met before?
SISKO: Yes, sir. We met in battle. I was on the Saratoga at Wolf 359.
Ugh. What is Sisko trying to accomplish here? Picard's guilt over the Locutus thing is on record, and you're not helping to defuse the situation, Ben!
PICARD: I assume that you have been briefed on the events leading to the Cardassian withdrawal?
SISKO: Yes, sir. I understand they've spent the last half century robbing the planet of every valuable resource before abandoning it.
Not even five minutes and the Occupation has gone from sixty years to fifty years. I thought that pilots are proofread more thoroughly than the rest of the show!
PICARD: They've left the Bajorans without a means of being self-sustaining. The relief efforts we've been coordinating are barely adequate.
Why is that, anyway? At least spout some nonsense about how we're still trying to recover from Wolf 359 and the Klingon Civil War!
PICARD: I've come to know the Bajorans. I'm a strong proponents for their entry into the Federation.
SISKO: Is it going to happen?
PICARD: Not easily. The ruling parties are at each others throats.
Like I said before, we see shockingly little about the politics of the Bajorans, especially when compared to their religious struggles. Why didn't we meet more people of the Pro-Federation, Anti-Federation spiritual, and Anti-Federation military factions?
PICARD: Your job is to do everything short of violating the Prime Directive to make sure that they are.
I don't think that this ever really panned out.
PICARD: I have been made aware by Starfleet of your objections to this assignment. I would have thought that after three years spent at the Utopia Planitia yards, that you would be ready for a change.
Was Utopia Planitia a punishment? I thought Sisko was playing it safe, especially as the only parent of a young child. He could've asked for active service at any time.
SISKO: I have a son that I'm raising alone, Captain. This is not the ideal environment.
PICARD: Unfortunately as Starfleet officers, we do not always have the luxury to serve in an ideal environment.
Really? Unless it's wartime I would assume that Starfleet officers can at least make a demand regarding serving on a ship vs. a starbase vs. a planet.
And lets be real here, at this point Sisko is hardly a prodigy as a commander, much less irreplacable.
ODO: You are a thief.
QUARK: If I am, you haven't been able to prove it for four years.
Quark's been here about ten years, it was Odo who arrived four years ago.
SISKO: We need a community leader and it's going to be you, Quark.
QUARK: Community leader?
ODO: Seems reasonable. You have all the character references of a politician.
Actually Quark would be a better politician than most we have now. At least Quark has a brain and understands the necessity to keep the wheels of industry moving on all levels. After all, peasants can't afford to pay him, but people with money CAN.
QUARK: Commander, I've made a career out of knowing when to leave, and this Bajoran provisional government is far too provisional for my taste. And when governments fall, people like me are lined up and shot.
Why? Quark has nothing to do with the Provisional Government. Furthermore, even if the Provisional Government collapses odds are it will be a military faction who takes command of the station without violence. The worst they would do is evict him from the sector.
KIRA: Our spiritual leader. She's known as the Kai. Our religion is the only thing that holds my people together. If she would call for unity, they'd listen. Leaders of all the factions have tried to get to her, but she lives in seclusion, rarely sees anyone.
How can the Kai be in that kind of seclusion? Kai Winn seemed pretty busy as a politician during her term, so how can Opaka hide away? The Pope has to interact with a lot of people, doesn't he?
For that matter, why did Opaka accept the position of Kai if she didn't intend to do the job?
(She opens a case to reveal a floating, green glowing bolus - an Orb)
Looks like Chakoteya chose to be pompous today. A "bolus" is a rounded mass, a bumpy sphere. If he wanted a fancy alternative to "hourglass-shaped", he could've at least said "hyperboloid".