“Battle Lines” is a multi-layered morality tale about how individuals and whole societies become immersed and even addicted to war. Throw in a few “miraculous” events like artificial resurrection and you’ve got the makings of an engaging, if rather simplistic, take on the need to find peace through the never-ending cycle of prejudice, hatred and violence. Unfortunately, the episode is just a bit too rough around the edges to be truly masterful. Indeed, at times this feels much more like an Original Series episode with its juxtaposition of deeply profound ideas and almost cartoonish characters and events. In the end, though, the fact that the episode successfully conveys its message trumps its less-than-praiseworthy elements.

This is the story of how a leisurely sight-seeing tour through the wormhole by Sisko, Kira, Bashir and The Kai turns into a desperate fight for survival in the midst of a planetary moon locked in a perpetual state of war. The trip itself is a bit of a contrivance, with The Kai continually uttering lines about “prophecies” but it happens to work. The result is a rather plausible setup for the episode’s primary conflicts on the moon. More importantly, a minor scene at the beginning that recalls Kira’s role in the Bajoran war for independence nicely foreshadows a major revelation for her character.

After being shot down by the moon’s security network of satellites, Sisko, Kira and Bashir struggle to accept the apparent death of the Kai. Kira’s mourning is poignant, but a bit overplayed making the scene just a bit too cringeworthy for it to be truly gripping. What’s more, the Kai will reappear just a few scenes later, having been inexplicably resurrected. This miracle becomes a mystery of science – one which comprises a subplot that leads the Kai to fulfill her own prophetic destiny. Put simply, she believes she was meant to remain on the moon to help its war-torn people find a path to peace.

These inhabitants, however, are presented, at least on the surface, rather implausibly. With their mullets and biker outfits, they look more like rejects from some heavy metal band than desperate and tragically pitiable survivors of an interminable war. Indeed, they are being punished for some crime long forgotten, placed on the moon to wage an eternal war – one which not even death can cure. As it turns out, The Kai’s resurrection is an artificial construct which was designed to keep the two sides warring forever, never letting them be released from their sentence.

It’s a singularly brutal and cruel punishment. But it’s also clear that these people have had their own hand in making matters as despicable as possible – neither side truly wants peace enough to sacrifice their anger and prejudice for it. The result is their perpetual cycle of violence, pain, death, and resurrection. This finds its symbolic moment in a dialogue between the Kai and Kira. The Kai asks Kira to see her own addiction to violence. Kira realizes that it’s something that she has known all her life and that she has not yet been able to break the cycle within herself. It’s a poignant character moment that is almost (but not quite) undone, once again, by a bit of overacting.

In the end, Sisko, Kira and Bashir escape thanks to O’Brien’s heavily technobabbled search and rescue mission, and the Kai is left behind to begin the process of bringing peace to the people of the moon (besides, if she left, her “resurrection” would come undone and she’d be dead). But before they leave, she assures Sisko that the two will cross paths once again.

“Battle Lines” is a worthy effort from Deep Space Nine. That it doesn’t quite manage to reach its own lofty goals isn’t quite as important as the message itself: that the only path to peace is finding the peace within oneself, first.

Filed under: Deep Space Nine