Showing posts with label maquis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maquis. Show all posts

Saturday 23 March 2024

Chakotay’s Cave






CHAKOTAY
From the look of these sensor readings, 
Seska wants us to come after her.

JANEWAY
Commander.

CHAKOTAY
I think Seska's leading us into another trap. 
She masterminded a precision raid 
that made us look like first year Academy students, 
but she left a warp trail for us to follow. 

After such a flawless performance, 
why would she suddenly made that kind of mistake?

JANEWAY
You think she wants more than the transporter. 
Are you suggesting we don't follow her?

CHAKOTAY
No, I agree with everything you said about preventing the spread of our technology. 
But conventional tactics aren't 
going to work with Seska. 
We'll need to come at her 
with a few surprises of our own.

JANEWAY
I'm open to suggestions.

TUVOK
Perhaps Commander Chakotay 
could use his intimate knowledge of Seska 
to manipulate her in much the same way 
She manipulated Us.



[Engineering]

TORRES
The module Seska stole contains 
a quantum resonance oscillator. 
So, we modify this coil scanner to detect the oscillator, 
then we get close enough to beam it back.

CHAKOTAY
I'm betting Seska's figured out a way 
to shield the module from our transporters. 
We might have to destroy it instead.

TORRES
How do we do that?

CHAKOTAY
We borrow a trick from Seska's book. 
Remember how we disabled the computer core on the Cardassian frigate orbiting Bajor?

TORRES:
Seska modified an anti-proton beam 
to penetrate its shields and hull.

CHAKOTAY
Exactly.

TORRES
But if I remember correctly, 
the beam was only effective from an extremely close range. 
How do we get near enough to the Nistrim ship?

CHAKOTAY
One thing at a time.

TORRES
You're taking this all very personally, aren't you?

CHAKOTAY
Why shouldn't I?

TORRES
You're not responsible for what happened.

CHAKOTAY
Oh no? I let her join the Maquis. 
I took her into my confidence. 
I even got intimately involved with her.

TORRES
So you have lousy taste in women. 
Look, Chakotay, she fooled us all
She was My Best Friend. 
Or at least, that's what I thought.

CHAKOTAY
Well, I for one, am through being manipulated by her.

TORRES: 
Are you sure? Because she's affecting you
That's just where she wants you. 
Don't tense up.

CHAKOTAY
So now I'm getting advice about 
controlling My Emotions from you.


[Ready room]

JANEWAY
Come in.

TORRES
Do you have a minute, Captain? 
It's about Chakotay.

JANEWAY
That's not exactly my favourite subject 
right now, Lieutenant.

TORRES
Well, I thought that maybe I could explain -

JANEWAY
Explain what? Why my First Officer 
publicly defied my authority by 
commandeering a shuttle 
without permission?

TORRES
I know it was never his intention to defy you. 
He respects Your Authority.

JANEWAY
But?

TORRES
But he's a very proud man. 
And he's been embarrassed by Seska. 

JANEWAY
What Seska did, she did to all of us. 
Frankly, I find it more than a little self-indulgent 
of Chakotay to assume this is all about him.

TORRES
He never said it to me directly but, 
I think he was in love with her. 
And then he found out that 
everything he knew about 
her was a lie. 

You said that he publicly 
defied Your Authority. 

Can you imagine what it 
must have been like for 
someone as private as Chakotay 
to be publicly humiliated 
by someone he loved

And then, as if that weren't enough, 
she came back to taunt him 
in front of the entire Bridge crew.

JANEWAY
I'm sure it was very painful for him. 
But what you're saying is, he's got 
a personal score to settle.

TORRES
That's only part of it. 
I know Chakotay. 
This is his way 
of Taking Responsibility. 

In His Mind, he's trying to protect The rest of Us 
from a dangerous situation which he created.

JANEWAY
Maybe. But that doesn't give him the privilege 
of ignoring this ship's chain of command.

TORRES
I know that. It's just that 
Chakotay would never 
tell you any of this himself.

JANEWAY
And, assuming we get him back in one piece, 
you want to make sure I take his personal feelings into account before I decide how to discipline him.

TORRES
I know that you're well within your rights 
to throw him into the brig, but, well —

JANEWAY
Chakotay is lucky to have 
such a good friend. 
I'll tell you what. 
Why don't we deal with getting him back 
in one piece first? 

We can worry about the discipline later.

TORRES
Thank you.

Thursday 6 January 2022

The Frontier







SISKO : 
Do you know what The Trouble is? 

KIRA : 
….no. 

SISKO : 
The Trouble is Earth

KIRA : 
Really? 

SISKO : 
On Earth there is no poverty
no crime, no war
You look out the window 
of Starfleet Headquarters 
and You see Paradise
Well, it's easy to be A Saint in Paradise, 
but The Maquis Do Not Live in Paradise. 
Out there in The Demilitarised Zone, 
all the problems haven't been solved yet. 

Out there, there are no saints, just people
Angry, scared, determined people 
who are going to do 
whatever it takes to survive 
whether it meets with 
Federation approval or not

KIRA : 
Makes sense to me. 

SISKO : 
I'm glad someone understands. 

 

SISKO:
 Mister Eddington. 
I have just one question. Why? 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
Will knowing my personal motivation 
change anything at this point? 

SISKO
No, I don't suppose it will. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
Then let's table that for now. 
The only reason I've contacted you 
is to ask you to leave us alone

Our quarrel is with the Cardassians
not the Federation. 

Leave us alone and I can promise you 
you'll never hear from the Maquis again. 

SISKO
Unless you see another shipment you want to hijack. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
You keep sending replicators to Cardassia 
and you're going to have a lot more 
to worry about than hijackings. 

SISKO
I don't respond well to threats. 
I thought you would know that by now. 
But I'm beginning to see that 
you don't know me at all

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
I know you
I was like you once, but then I opened my eyes.
 
Open your eyes, Captain. 

Why is the Federation 
so obsessed about the Maquis? 

We've never harmed you, 
and yet we're constantly arrested 
and charged with terrorism. 

Starships chase us through the Badlands 
and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. 

Why?


 Because We've 
left The Federation, 
and that's the one thing 
you can't accept. 

Nobody leaves Paradise. 

Everyone should want to be 
in The Federation. 

Hell, you even want 
The Cardassians to join. 

You're only sending them replicators 
because one day they can take 
their rightful place 
on the Federation Council. 

You know, in some ways 
You're worse than 
The Borg. 

At least They tell You 
about Their Plans 
for assimilation. 

You're more insidious. 
You assimilate people 
and they don't even know it

SISKO
You know what, Mister Eddington? 
I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, the Maquis, or anything else. 

All I know is that you betrayed Your Oath, 
Your Duty, and me

And if it takes me the rest of my life, 
I will see you standing before a court-martial 
that'll break you and send you to a penal colony, 
where you will spend the rest of your days 
growing old and wondering whether 
a ship full of replicators was really worth it.




DAX:
Les Miserables.

SISKO:
You know it?

DAX:
I can't stand Victor Hugo. 
I tried reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I couldn't get through it. 
It was so melodramatic and his heroines are so two dimensional.

SISKO:
Eddington compares me to one of the characters, Inspector Javert. A policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offence, and in the end Javert's own inflexibility destroys him. He commits suicide.

DAX:
You can't believe that description fits you. 
Eddington is just trying to get under your skin.

SISKO:
He did that eight months ago. 
What strikes me about this book is that 
Eddington said that it's one of his favourites.

DAX:
There's no accounting for taste.

SISKO:
Let's think about it.
A Starfleet security officer is fascinated by a nineteenth century French melodrama, 
and now he's a leader of the Maquis,
 a resistance group fighting the noble battle 
against the evil Cardassians.

DAX:
It sounds like he's living out his own fantasy.

SISKO:
Exactly. And you know what?
 Les Miserables isn't 
about The Policeman.
It's about Valjean, the victim 
of a monstrous injustice 
who spends his entire life 
helping people, making noble sacrifices 
for others. 

That's how Eddington sees himself. 
He's Valjean, he's Robin Hood, 
he's a romantic, dashing figure, 
fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds.

DAX:
The secret life of Michael Eddington.
How does it help us?

SISKO:
Eddington is the hero of his own story. 
That makes me the villain. 

And what is it that every hero 
wants to do?

DAX:
Kill the bad guy.

SISKO:
That's part of it. 
Heroes only kill when they have to.

Eddington could have killed me 
back in the refugee camp 
or when he disabled the Defiant, 
but in the best melodramas 
the villain creates a situation 
where the hero is forced 
to sacrifice himself 
for the people, for the cause. 
One final grand gesture.

DAX:
What are you getting at, Benjamin?

SISKO:
I think it's time for me to become The Villain.


 
There are Heroes on Both Sides. 
Evil is Everywhere.


EDDINGTON
But think about those people you saw in the caves, 
huddled and starving. 
They didn't attack the Malinche.

SISKO
You should have thought about that 
before 
you attacked a Federation starship

(Sisko turns his back on the Eddington hologram


(Transmission ends)


Captain's log, supplemental. 
Resettlement efforts in the DMZ are underway. 
The Cardassian and Maquis colonists 
who were forced to abandon their homes 
will make new lives for themselves 
on the planets their counterparts evacuated. 

The balance in the region will be restored, 
though the situation remains far from stable.




He is The Chosen One.

He will bring Balance.


SISKO: 
Are you all right? 

EZRI: 
I talked with Worf.
 He doesn't want to have anything to do with me. 

SISKO: 
Perhaps I should have a talk with him. 

EZRI: 
Absolutely not. You intimidate him. 

SISKO: 
Me? 

EZRI: 
Don't tell him I told you. 

SISKO: 
I intimidate Worf, huh? 

EZRI: 
You like that, don't you? 

SISKO: 
Of course not. 

EZRI: 
Come on. I've been a m

Monday 23 December 2019

The Hero is a Villain







SISKO: 
Let's think about it. 
A Starfleet security officer is fascinated by a nineteenth century French melodrama, and now he's a leader of the Maquis, a resistance group fighting the noble battle against the evil Cardassians. 

DAX: 
It sounds like he's living out his own fantasy. 

SISKO: 
Exactly. And you know what? 

Les Miserables isn't about The Policeman. 

It's about Valjean, the victim of a monstrous injustice who spends his entire life helping people, making noble sacrifices for others. 

That's how Eddington sees himself. 

He's Valjean, he's Robin Hood, he's a romantic, dashing figure, fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds. 

DAX: 
The secret life of Michael Eddington. 
How does it help us? 

SISKO: 
Eddington is The Hero of His Own Story. 

That makes me The Villain. 

And what is it that every hero wants to do? 


DAX: 
Kill The Bad Guy. 

SISKO: 
That's part of it. 

Heroes only kill when they have to. 

Eddington could have killed me back in the refugee camp or when he disabled the Defiant, 
but in the best melodramas The Villain creates a situation where The Hero is forced to sacrifice himself for The People, for The Cause.

One final grand gesture. 


DAX: 
What are you getting at, Benjamin? 

SISKO: 
I think it's time for me to become The Villain.





“The answer to all of this, everything that we’re talking about, is education into early history. 

Until people understand the Stone Age, the nomadic period, the agrarian era, and how culture, how civilization built up. . . 


In Mesopotamia - the great irrigation projects. Or in Egypt where you had. . . Centralized government authority became necessary to master these. . . 



You had a situation, an environmentally difficult situation like the deserts Mesopotamia, or the peculiar character of Egyptian geography where you can only have a little tiny fertile line along the edges of the Nile. 

Otherwise, desert landscape. 


So [understanding] civilization and authority as not necessarily about power grabbing but about organization to achieve something for the good of the people as a whole. 
Peterson: 
That’s exactly the great symbolism of 
The Great Father. 








Paglia: By reducing all hierarchy to power, and selfish power, is utterly naive. It’s ignorant. 

I say education has to be totally reconstituted, including public education, to begin in the most distant past so our young people today, who know nothing about how the world was created that they inhabit, can understand what a marvelous technological paradise they live in. 

And it’s the product of capitalism, it’s the product of individual innovation. 



Most of it’s the product of a Western tradition that everyone wants to trash now. If you begin in the past and show. . . And also talk about War, because War is the one thing that wakes people up, as we see. 

Peterson: And as we may see. 

Paglia: Yes, War is The Reality Principle. 

My father and five of my uncles went to World War II. 

My father was part of the force that landed in Japan. 

He was a paratrooper at the time of the Japanese surrender. And a couple of uncles got shot up and so on. 

When you have the reality of war, when people see the reality, the horrors of war - Berlin burned to a crisp and so on. 

Starvation and all. . . Then you understand this marvelous mechanism that brings water to the kitchen. 

And you flip on a light and the electricity turns on. 

Peterson: I know, for me, and I suppose it’s because I have somewhat of a depressive temperament. . . 

I mean one thing that staggers me on a consistent basis is the fact that anything •ever• works. 

Because it’s so unlikely, you know, to be in a situation where our electronic communications work, where our electric grid works. And it works all the time, it works one hundred percent of the time. 

And the reason for that is there are mostly men out there who are breaking themselves into pieces, repairing this thing which just falls apart all the time. 

Paglia: Absolutely. I said this in the Munk Debate in Toronto several years ago. All these elitists and professors sneering at men. It’s men who are maintaining everything around us. 

This invisible army which feminists don’t notice. 

Nothing would work if it weren’t for the men. 

Peterson: A professor is someone who’s standing on a hill surrounded by a wall, which is surrounded by another wall, which is surrounded by another wall - it’s walls all the way down - who stands up there and says I’m brave and independent. It’s like, you’ve got this protected area that’s so unlikely - it’s so absolutely unlikely - and the fact that people aren’t on their knees in gratitude all the time for the fact that we have central heating and air conditioning and pure water and reliable food. . . It’s absolutely unbelievable. 

Paglia: Yes, I mean people used to die. . . The water supply was contaminated with cholera for heaven’s sake. People don’t understand. To have clean water, fresh milk, fresh orange juice. All of these things. These are marvels. 

Peterson: And all of the time. 

Paglia: All of the time. Western culture is heading - because we are so dependent on this invisible infrastructure - we’re heading for an absolute catastrophe when jihadists figure out how to paralyze the power grid. The entire culture will be chaotic. You’ll have mobs in the street within three days when suddenly the food supply is interrupted and there’s no way to communicate. 




That is the way Western culture is going to collapse. And it won’t take much. 

Peterson: Single points of failure. 

Paglia: Because we are so interconnected, and now we’re so dependent on communications and computers. . . I used to predict for years it’ll be an asteroid hitting the earth, and then we’ll have another ice age.





Friday 8 February 2019

Javert



SISKO: 
Well, well, Mister Eddington. 

EDDINGTON: 
(hologram) 
You just couldn't resist the temptation to come after me, could you, Captain. 

SISKO: 
I like to finish what I start.
 
EDDINGTON: 
Well, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, again. 
You won't get me, Captain. 

But I do have a consolation prize for you. 
Actually it's more of a gift.
 

KIRA: 
 Incoming transmission. 
Sending over a document. 

EDDINGTON: 
It's a book. One of my favourites. 
Les Miserables. 
 
SISKO: 
Thank you, but I've read it. 

EDDINGTON: 
Recently? If not, you should read it again. 
Pay close attention to the character of Inspector Javert

The French policeman who spends twenty years chasing a man for stealing a loaf of bread.

Sound like anyone you know? 



[Mess hall]
(Miserable Sisko is reading a PADD.

DAX: 
We've towed the transport ship out of the planet's gravitational pull. 

SISKO: 
Once our repair team is back onboard, release the tractor beam. 
The Cardassians can limp their way home in a day or two. 

DAX: 
Les Miserables. 

SISKO: 
You know it? 

DAX: 
I can't stand Victor Hugo. 
I tried reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I couldn't get through it. 
It was so melodramatic and his heroines are so two dimensional. 

SISKO: 
Eddington compares me to one of the characters, Inspector Javert. 

A policeman who relentlessly pursues a man named Valjean, guilty of a trivial offence, 
and in the end Javert's own inflexibility destroys him. 

He commits suicide. 

DAX: 
You can't believe that description fits you. Eddington is just trying to get under your skin. 

SISKO:
 
He did that eight months ago. 

What strikes me about this book is that Eddington said that it's one of his favourites. 

DAX: 
There's no accounting for taste. 

SISKO: 
Let's think about it. 

A Starfleet security officer is fascinated by a nineteenth century French melodrama, and now he's a leader of the Maquis, a resistance group fighting the noble battle against the evil Cardassians. 

DAX: 
It sounds like he's living out his own fantasy.

SISKO: 
Exactly. And you know what? 

Les Miserables isn't about the policeman.

It's about Valjean, the victim of a monstrous injustice who spends his entire life helping people, making noble sacrifices for others. 

That's how Eddington sees himself. 

He's Valjean, he's Robin Hood, he's a romantic, dashing figure, fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds. 

DAX: 
The secret life of Michael Eddington. 
How does it help us?

SISKO: 
Eddington is the hero of his own story. 
That makes me the villain. 

And what is it that every hero wants to do? 

DAX: 
 Kill The Bad Guy. 

SISKO: 
That's part of it. 
Heroes only kill when they have to. 

Eddington could have killed me back in the refugee camp or when he disabled the Defiant, but in the best melodramas The Villain creates a situation where the hero is forced to sacrifice himself for the people, for the cause. 

One final grand gesture. 

DAX: 
What are you getting at, Benjamin?
 
SISKO: 
I think it's time for me to become The Villain.


Friday 28 April 2017

How Assimilation Became a Dirty Word : MANIFEST DESTINY


We are The Borg. 

Lower your shields and surrender your ships.

We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. 
Your culture will adapt to service us. 

Resistance is Futile.


Assimilation : The Arthurian Dream

 



[Captain's office]

(Sisko switches on a wall monitor.) 

EDDINGTON [on monitor]: 
Captain. 

SISKO: 
Mister Eddington. 
I have just one question. 

Why? 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
Will knowing my personal motivation change anything at this point? 

SISKO: 
No, I don't suppose it will. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
Then let's table that for now. 

The only reason I've contacted you is to ask you to leave us alone. 


Our quarrel is with the Cardassians, not the Federation. 


Leave us alone and I can promise you you'll never hear from the Maquis again. 

SISKO:
 Unless you see another shipment you want to hijack. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
You keep sending replicators to Cardassia and you're going to have a lot more to worry about than hijackings. 

SISKO: 
I don't respond well to threats. 
I thought you would know that by now. 
But I'm beginning to see that you don't know me at all. 

EDDINGTON 
[on monitor]: 
I know you. I was like you once, but then I opened my eyes. 
Open your eyes, Captain. 

Why is the Federation so obsessed about the Maquis? 


We've never harmed you, and yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed


Why? 


Because we've left the Federation, 

and that's the one thing you can't accept. 

Nobody leaves Paradise. 

Everyone should want to be in the Federation. 

Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. 


You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. 


You know, in some ways you're worse than the Borg. 

At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. 

You're more insidious. 

You assimilate people and they don't even know it. 

SISKO: 

You know what, Mister Eddington? 
I don't give a damn what you think of the Federation, the Maquis, or anything else. 
All I know is that you betrayed your oath, your duty, and me. And if it takes me the rest of my life, I will see you standing before a court-martial that'll break you and send you to a penal colony, where you will spend the rest of your days growing old and wondering whether a ship full of replicators was really worth it.


"For [Sisko/Roddenbury, The United Federation of Planets] means... a fixed array of behavior like a breed of dog or a species of animal. 
He is not thinking of a national community united by a literate language and a classical culture to which any person can become assimilated through a political choice. 
For [Sisko/Roddenberry, The United Federation of Planets] is unchangeable, and [The Federation] is destiny. 
It is a matter of blood and soil. 
The United Federation of Planets fights the Klingons,
and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights Romulans,and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights Ferrengi,  
and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Borg,
and then assimilates them,


The United Federation of Planets fights The Cardassians,
and then assimilates them,

The United Federation of Planets fights The Dominion,
and then assimilates them,

and so on through all eternity. 

These hatreds are the main datum of sensory perception.
[Roddenberry's] warhorse is the Territorial Imperative. 
Each is obsessed with borders and territory [Neutral Zones and Demilitarised Zones, Badlands and Briar Patches], and each finds a way to oppose and sabotage dirigistic economic development. 

Each one is eager to submerge and repress other national groupings in pursuit of its own mystical destiny. 


This is [Roddenberry's] racist gospel of universal ethnic cleansing.