Best of Star Trek: Deep Space 9---In the Hands of the Prophets

"In the Hands of the Prophets" was the last episode of season 1. It was written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe.

SUMMATION

This episode has two story lines, one involving a Bajoran technician that is working closely with Chief O'Brien. O'Brien notices an important tool is missing, along with an ensign, whose remains are later discovered in a conduit. An investigation ensues. As the investigation unfolds, we learn the murdered man had been a witness to someone rerouting security controls.

Meanwhile O'Brien's wife Keiko is running a school for the kids on the station. Her class is interrupted by Vedek Winn, an orthodox spiritual leader on Bajor and candidate to be the next Kai. Keiko is teaching that the wormhole in Bajoran space was artificially constructed by entities who reside there. Winn is having none of it. "Excuse me, by 'entities,' do you not mean the prophets?" "In a manner of speaking...but our studies show it was formed by unique particles...that are self-sustaining in nature" replies Keko.

Now the fun begins. Winn calls what Keiko is doing is blasphemy. Keiko calls it opening the children's minds to scientific research and discovery. Because they are in Bajoran space, Winn states the school can't continue unless Keiko's curriculum involves knowledge of the prophets. Keiki refuses, insisting that her job is to teach facts and Winn's job is to teach spiritual matters. "Is there a place in your school for the prophets?" Winn asks Keiko.

"No..my responsibility is to expose my students to knowledge, not hide it from them."

Winn warns Sisko that unless Keiko recants, she can't be responsible for the consequences.

As Winn and Vedek Bareil, a reformed opponent vying for the position of Kai, try to come to a compromise on the direction of the school, an explosion occurs on the station. The school is destroyed.

O'Brien's assistant had been meeting secretly with Winn, who convinces her to carry out what the prophets want, to stop the school at any cost and that it will require sacrifice. She is caught carrying a weapon after it's discovered that she was the one who disabled security locks, including weapons detection. Her target was Vedek Bareil.  She's stopped by Sisko. She yells "The prophets spoke. I answered their call!"

Major Kira is wise to Winn and lets her know that she knows she's the one who staged the whole affair to get Bareil assassinated in order to become Kai.

One highlight is when a Bajoran vendor on the station refuses to sell to the O'Briens. Odo steps in before Miles has a chance to deck the guy. "Seek the prophets!" The vender yells to the O'Briens as they leave. Odo (under his breath) "Seek them yourself."

What makes this episode epic is that it speaks to our contemporary society, especially regarding public education and the religious leaders of our time attempting to eradicate science education and/or merge it with biblical myth and creationism. Here we have an educator, in the form of Keiko O'Brien, insisting that foregoing the teaching of the sciences is akin to hiding knowledge. The message is clear---let the teachers teach and the religious leaders offer spiritual guidance, but in separate venues.

It reminds me of a saying I've often seen on secularist websites and blogs:  Don't pray in my school and I won't think in your church. A more accurate saying would be---keep education and religion separate!

And it's refreshing to witness someone, either here or in real life, stand up for science education and stand up to the dogmatic dictates of religious authoritarians.