User Reviews

When the episode begins, a group of four Skrreeans arrive through the wormhole. But, because they are so foreign, it takes some time for the language computers to establish communications between them. Eventually, however, this problem is worked out and they learn that this race of people have been repeatedly conquered and there are several million of them looking for sanctuary. Obviously there are too many to come to live on Deep Space 9 and later the Skrreeans insist that their planet they've been dreaming of is Bajor! The Bajorans are NOT thrilled with millions of the Skrreeans landing on their planet. The Skrreeans think they'll be an asset and seem to have a sense of entitlement to live there. Well, regardless, the Bajorans aren't about to budge and the Skrreeans dejectedly leave the station.

This is an odd episode. While the audience's sympathies would normally be with such displaced people, the Skrreeans didn't make this easy, as they seemed demanding and tough to like. Not a bad episode, really--just unusual. And, it did feel odd that the Skrreeans sulked away from the station at the end EVEN THOUGH THE FEDERATION DID HELP THEM find a home planet--just not the one they demanded. Genuinely strange.

Was the point of the episode to agree completely with the Bajoran council and Kira?

Maybe... MAYBE this episode would have landed better if these alien immigrants had some type of similiar religion (prophets) that the bajorans have and thus we have a point of religious conflict.

As it stands now this entire episode is a build up to a scene of complaining about not being able to play with Bajors toys despite an entire world of toys being offered and found by the crew on DS9.

How about a story arc about Bajorans not wanting them on the planet because they have a religious belief that was in conflict with the prophets?

There is a start of a good story here but this script definitely needed a few revisions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEW REVISION -

After re-watching this episodes I need to make a few revisions to my review and the score (from a 5 to a 7). I'm big enough to admit when my thinking is flawed and part of trek's charm is that I can learn to appreciate an episode I did not like in previous viewings and that is the case here. I'll leave the initial review up for laughs.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am doing another watch through of DS9 and my opinion on this episode has changed a bit. There is a nice little arc involving the Bajoran people having to wrestle with being the people in power deciding another races fate ---- After decades of being enslaved by the Caradassians the experience has changed the Bajoran people to protect what they have. The Skrreeans are denied refugee status for potential negative 'what ifs' instead of accepted for potential positive what ifs. I personally do believe that is a major dick move to suggest that an inhabited planet is yours and you have the right to settle it but the episode is more nuanced then my initial review suggests.

If you tie this episode into modern history ---- It's clearly an episode about the giant dumpster fire that is creation of Israel in palestine by the united nations. I am pretty confident that if you asked a Palestinian in 1945 if they are okay with giving away land to the Jewish people they would give you same answer that the Bajorans gave to the Skrreeans. I won't talk any further about that migraine headache of a situation.

I found that I enjoyed how the episode did not choose a side. How you take the conclusion of this episode is completely up to you and your experiences.

This strange race of intergalactic farmers is rescued by those on DS9. These people are embraced by those on the station. Sisko and the gang find a planet which will give sustenance and hope to three million. But they have decided because of their religious tenets Bajor is where they should go. Bajor is reeling from Cardassian occupation and can't support so many. It all gets a bit harsh and it would have been different if there were no place for these people, but I can't really be sympathetic. They themselves lived under oppression and now have a chance.

When a damaged ship comes through the worm hole the passengers are beamed aboard the station but their language is too complicated for the universal translators to decipher at first. Once what they say can be translated it turns out they are refugees called the Skrreeas who believe their ancient home world was on the Alpha Quadrant side of the worm hole... and they believe that world was Bajor. As more and more Skrreeas come to the station they have run ins with certain people, noticeably Nog who gets into a scuffle with a group of them after they don't take to kindly to him spaying them with a foul smelling substance. When the Bajorans come to a decision about whether or not to accept the refugees it isn't the one the Skrreeas were hoping for and one of them takes a ship and tries to get to Bajor but to do that he must deal with a faulty engine and Bajoran interceptors.

This wasn't a bad episode even if though it was somewhat lacking in action; even the scene involving the ship being intercepted above Bajor was only illustrated by showing the positions of the ships on a radar screen rather than actually showing them. Luckily the Skrreea leader, played by Deborah May, is quite interesting and it avoided the clichéd "happy ever after" ending which I'd expected. We get another hint about the Dominion, learning that they conquered the race who were oppressing the Skrreeas.

A race known as the Skreans have come through the wormhole and are lookingZ for a new home. They've been conquered by the legendary Dominion back in their original home.

The group is led by Deborah May and there is a legend among the Skreans that a kind of Nirvana will be found at the end of a long journey. They think Bajor might be it, but the Bajorans don't want them.

Avery Brooks has a delicate diplomatic problem dealing with this race. The women are the leaders, the men which includes young Andrew Koenig are headstrong and hot tempered.

Commander Sisko has his hands full. As does Odo keeping law and order on the station with refugees everywhere.

1- A One Sentence Plot Synopsis..................... *A people (Skrreeans) without a home planet come through the wormhole and begin to look for possible solutions to their homelessness.

2- Viewers Check This Out.....................

* DON'T TOUCH THAT!....... At 11:15 in the gift shop - Odo and Kira try to get the Skrreean adolescents to stop playing with items on a table. What follows is laugh at loud funny.

*HAKUNA MATATA?......... The Universal Translator has a difficult time with the Skrreean language. At 11:58 some Skrreean's are bantering back and forth and I could've sworn I heard one of them start speaking the words to the Lion King song, "Hakuna Matata". Their language has that vibe - which is an African dialect.

* CHEKOV's REAL-LIFE SON HAS A MAJOR GUEST STAR APPEARANCE......... Walter Koenig's (Pavel Chekhov from the original Star Trek series) real-life son, Andrew, plays the son of the lead lady guest star (Deborah May as Haneek). His character's name is Tumak. Andrew's part in this episode is integral to the plot and his character's life is eerily similar to the plot of his real life. His real life has some very interesting twists and turns with the art and the artist intertwined to the very end, not too long ago.

*UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR'S ARE COOL....... At approximately 14:40 the Universal Translator is finally able to come to the rescue. The interchange where this takes place is fascinating to watch. Two distinctly different cultures with different languages are able to finally understand each other. The way the scene plays out is interesting and reveals the necessity of a UT (Universal Translator) for exploring space and being successful in your transactions/interactions both professionally and personally.

*WOMEN IN CHARGE AND USERS OF MEN....... When Kira shows up at the Skrreean woman's guest quarters (18:10) and begins a conversation, 2 Skrreean guys come staggering out of her bedroom rubbing their eyes. She tells them (literally shoos them away like animals) to go back to bed - she says she would not be long behind them. Kira is open-mouthed. We discover Skrreean women take more than one man (if they have an inclination to do so) to their bedroom. Haneek "keeps" (I'm not using that verb casually) 2 for herself. She tells Kira, "They are very useful." Kira responds with a sly grin, "I can imagine they are."

*WHAT SKRREEAN WOMEN THINK OF MEN....... "....men are far too emotional to be leaders. They are constantly fighting among themselves. It's their favorite thing to do. I'm sorry, I hope I have not offended anyone." - Haneek - farmer lady.

*THERE'S THAT NAME AGAIN............ "The Dominion" are mentioned by Haneek as a group/race of beings in the Gamma Quadrant-other side of worm hole- wrecking havoc and dislocating entire planetary populations. When Haneek mentions them, furtive glances are exchanged among the DS9 cadre. They are preparing us...getting us ready....

*FREEDOM!!........... At approximately 22:00 the first wave of immigrants from Skrreea flood DS9 much to the chagrin of Odo. But Sisko reminds him they are getting their first real taste of freedom. So many earth analogies can be made from the Skrreeans clambering for security, freedom & peace.

*LIKE FATHER LIKE SON...... Remember the siren scream emanating from Rom (during Necessary Evil) when Quark is attacked on his hospital bed? In this episode Nog and Jake Sisko are in a brawl (30:19) on the upper level of the promenade and Nog emits a similar sound. It is not near as loud or developed, but it's definitely there. When Quark comes to the rescue Nog hides behind his uncle and it is during this moment I noticed something else about Ferengi. I've heard other Ferengi give off this sound as well but Nog really makes it clear: a cat-like hiss. That's right - a cat, under distress and angry will make eye contact and hiss, spit and sputter. This is what Nog was doing hiding behind his uncle, Quark, as the Skrreean guys left. Hissing behind bared teeth!

3- Final Reflective Analysis and Final Grade............

*Dax and O'Brien are almost non-existent in this episode.

The Skrreeans are a pathetic group of people. They stink (Nog was going around spraying them with a body spray of some kind! Lol). They are not a very attractive people. I think it's very interesting the writers chose to make their culture a matriarchal -dominated society. The problem with doing that in this particular episode is the Skrreeans have completely failed to maintain their way of life and find themselves homeless vagabonds - wandering around the universe begging and living off the good will of others! Is this what happens when women have control of an entire society? Hopefully, in the future, the writers will give female dominated societies a better look. I have long heard women in our society say if they ruled the world it would be a much better place. Definitely do not look to the Skrreeans as an example of how life would look if women ruled the world! I mean you can have two guys waiting in bed for you and you can boss men around - so what??? You have lost control of your planet, chaos reigns and people think you stink and don't want you anywhere near their world and will literally kill you if you try!

Women, apparently you will not find Star Trek writers coming to your rescue or empathizing with your hopes and dreams.

Final Grade For Episode: B-

A new race of people, a matriarchal society called the Skreeans, come thru the worm hole and when DS9 meets them, they immediately want to help them, as they've been repeatedly oppressed and enslaved by various races.

The Skreeans tell DS9 they're looking for their new homeland, as per their religious tenets. So the group sets out looking for a planet for them, but the Skreeans suddenly decide that Bajor is the place they are supposed to settle.

The Bajoran Provisional government decides they cannot support a race of three million-plus people, as they're still reeling from the Cardassian invasion of their planet. So DS9 has found them a nice planet to settle on, and they inform them of such.

And then the Skreeans go from grateful, kind matriarchs to sullen, petulant and very ungrateful.

Incidentally, the males of this society are all grunting morons who do nothing but grab and fight and act generally stupid. And after Bajor gives them the no-go on settling there, one of the stupider gruntier males takes a defunct ship and tries to land on Bajor anyway. Why? Who knows. What is one ship and one Skreean landing on Bajor going to change? But the males are definitely not the thinkers in this race.

So the ship blows up and that idiot dies and the episode ends as the Skreeans leave DS9 and the lead Skreean gives Major Kira some major attitude as she disembarks. Not exactly a "thanks for all the free food, free shelter and kindness you gave us in finding us a new home."

I have to say, the Skreeans portray themselves as "peaceful farmers" repeatedly throughout this episode, and yet at least half their society is a bunch of grunting, fighting males. The lead actually even says at one point that fighting is their favorite pasttime. Then after Bajor denies their request to settle there, they act like ungrateful bitches.

Why would ANYONE want these people integrated into their society?

Maybe Bajor made a mistake, maybe not, but the Skreeans acted like assholes and we're very unlikeable in the end. The leader tells Kira she thinks the two societies could've helped each other and supported each other, but "now we'll never know."

But I think even if Bajor had let the Skreeans settle, eventually Bajorans would've done something to piss off the Skreeans, then it would've been too late. The whole society is settled there and they're all stuck together. Now...civil war.

TOS's "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was widely considered a huge turkey, but it's Shakespeare compared to this.

The crazy thing here is the producers don't seem to fathom in the slightest how silly and contrived this episode is. LTBYLB explicitly makes their races identical except for a minor difference skin tones.

Here? These people have no connection to Bajor whatsoever, don't clean up after themselves, can't control half their population (the males), and believe they are entitled to lush farmland on Bajor despite Bajor having suffered 50 years of other aliens insisting they have a right to Bajor.

This isn't hypothetical either. Once denied their demands, one of the alien males attempts to occupy Bajor by force. Hello?

For me personally, this actually made me like the Bajorans for the first time, and Kira specifically.

Kira is incredibly friendly to Haneek, who then tells her in a parting shot that Bajor has become frightened and suspicious because of 50 years of occupation because she didn't get what she wanted.

My only thing is Kira should have kicked her through the airlock.

Beggars can't be choosers, but the Skriins think they can invade an inhabited planet with the help of its inhabitants? Their males are so aggressive they can't even trust them in the smallest position of authority, but they are "Peaceful" farmers? Nobody would take that deal, but they were lucky they hit the federation. Send them back to the Gamma quadrant for all anybody cares.

Wow - I am a HUGE Star Trek fan - but this may be the worst episode of Star Trek EVER. The writing is terrible, and the story makes no sense. First, there is some stupid thing with a new musician in Quark's bar that really has no purpose and goes nowhere. Then, the Skrreans show up from a planet in the Gamma Quadrant. At first, the universal translator won't work with the Skrrean language, but then suddenly starts working like magic. It has no reason to even be in the episode except to try and be funny? I guess? But it isn't. After the UT starts magicaly working, the Skrreans ask for help in finding a new home because they have been forced to leave their planet by oppressors and invaders. The people on DS9 of course sympathize with the Skrreans and are very welcoming and compassionate and offer to let thousands of the Skrreans stay on DS9 while they help them find a new home (Quark and his nephew are jerks to them but what else is new? They are always jerks! :P). The DS9 crew finds them a new uninhabited planet, but the Skrreans decide they don't want the new uninhabited planet the DS9 crew found for them, they want to be given land on Bajor. When the Bajoran Provisional Government refuses, for the very logical reason that their planet isn't in good enough condition to support 3 million more people - the Skrreans act like ungrateful jerks - as if DS9 HADN'T just dropped everything to help them and that the Bajorans WEREN'T actually looking out for the Skrreans' well-being as well as their own. If I was supposed to be feeling sympathetic to the Skrreans, then the writing didn't do its job, because they pretty much seemed like invaders trying to be the 2nd coming of the Cardassians on Bajor (or something like Europeans to the Americas). Imagine some stranger coming to your house, you offer them food and shelter for a few days, and are perfectly kind and hospitable to them; but then they suddenly demand to be allowed to have half of your house. When you say, "I'm sorry, but that's just not possible," they suddenly act like you are a selfish, greedy, paranoid, uncaring oppressor. Wtf? This episode just did not make sense; the only way it makes sense is if the viewer is supposed to not like the Skrreans; but so many things seem to indicate that you are supposed to sympathize with them. I will just try to forget this episode exists; just like I try to pretend the Kazon and Seska in Voyager don't exist!!

Wow this episode was aggravating. Three million refugees pile through the wormhole to DS9. The federation offers them an entire class M planet for free for them to resettle. Apparently this is not good enough for them and they demand to settle on Bajor, which the Bajorans of course refuse. One can't help but draw parallels to the modern day European refugee crisis where refugees complain about being put in rural areas and instead demand to be moved to 'Kentanna' (London, Paris etc.)

Well what can be said. Three million disreputable refugees show up on DS9's doorstep and are welcomed with open arms, fed and given a planet . This however doesn't seem to be good enough. They want to steal as they like and demand to be settled on a world where the rightful population has just survived a massive trauma!

If I was Sisko I would kick their ungrateful behinds right back through the eye of the universe! Good riddance!

No wonder the dominion let them escape, it was probably a strategic move to inflict the Alpha Quadrant with these flakey creeps.

Good episode however. Actors were spot on.

2.10 "Sanctuary"

A species of refugees come through the wormhole and request to be allowed to settle on Bajor. Kira and her people must decide if they are strong enough to help their fellow beings in need.

Mediocre ep. How a people that is struggling with its own internal problem deals with refugees seeking asylum is an important real world issue--one that seemingly grows more important with each passing year. Sci fi is at its best when dealing with real world issues in open and honest ways, so this ep had real potential. Unfortunately the characters and writing are all poorly handled and it comes off as mostly boring and frustrating to watch.

THE GOOD

-Tackles a crucial real world issue in sci fi's unique and special way

-We hear the name "Dominion" for the second time. This is the real meat of the ep. The script itself may be bad, but the way the showrunners are slowly but steadily building towards the Dominion War is amazing to see, both in retrospect and in context. I know what an epic arc the war is, but also I know how groundbreaking this kind of long arc was at the time. This is one of the biggest reasons why DS9 was such a great show--even in the middle of a bad episode we get important worldbuilding seeds that won't fully bloom for years. Powerful stuff.

THE BAD

-The Skrreans are unlikable and their motivations are poorly explored. It's not at all clear why they are so determined to settle on Bajor versus a different random crappy planet.

-Too much Kira and Bajorans

-Technically a terrarium ep, although there is so much talk of the Gamma Quadrant and Bajor that you almost don't notice.

THE UGLY

-The Skrreans' themselves. Not just their faces but their sense of style too. Finally a race with worse style than the Bajorans. Maybe they really were meant for each other.

-Radiation doesn't "ignite."