Star Trek Deep Space 9: Paradise

[ScreamingDoom]

I don't want her to suffer, I either want her to understand, and realize that she's done wrong. Or for everyone who follows her to know that she was a bad example, and for them to understand instead.

She's an ideologue. They very rarely are able to see things in an objective light because their entire self-image is wrapped up in their ideology. Evidence and reason do not puncture their little bubble of smug self-assurance, usually to the point where they actively attempt to dismiss or gag ideas or arguments that do not confirm their worldview.

[Nevix]

I don't want her to suffer, I either want her to understand, and realize that she's done wrong. Or for everyone who follows her to know that she was a bad example, and for them to understand instead.

She's an ideologue. They very rarely are able to see things in an objective light because their entire self-image is wrapped up in their ideology. Evidence and reason do not puncture their little bubble of smug self-assurance, usually to the point where they actively attempt to dismiss or gag ideas or arguments that do not confirm their worldview.

Then I want her kept well away from the levers and switches of power and authority, for the good of those around her.

[J!!]

the ending of this episode never really bothered me. i see it as being rather ambiguous. the colonists are in shock over the revelation, and they don't really know what to do about any of it yet; maybe they'll turn the thing back on and elect alexis their luddite god-empress, or maybe they'll lynch her as soon as sisko's back is turned. but whatever they decide, it's their decision to make.

[Wolf359]

What I don't get is that this colony was seemingly not far from DS9 (it predated the discovery of the wormhole and was reached by runabout in not too long a time), and yet had been completely undiscovered for all that time? Being near DS9, it must pretty close to Cardassian space as well, yet not even during the Cardassian War was it found? I can well imagine a Cardassian ship finding it and just wiping it off the map from orbit, assuming it was a Starfleet outpost or whatever as they did on Setlik III.

And oh the irony of Alixus using technology to enforce her anti-technology crap. If I'd had been Sisko, I'd have put her in her precious punishment box and launched it into the sun. Bet it'd get toasty in there before the end!

Alixus must be a pretty shit pilot to not be able to steer the Rio Grande into something the size of a sun. But then it's the Rio Grande, and is probably blessed by the Prophets as "the chariot of the Sisko" or something...

[Admiral X]

I'd always wondered how they managed to board the runabout, personally.

[Wolf359]

I'd always wondered how they managed to board the runabout, personally.

True. She'd have needed a communicator of some sort and/or a transporter. But then, don't runabout have the console lockout thing? The same thing that stopped Jake and Nog taking the Rio Grande back to the wormhole in "The Jem'Hadar" before they dismantled half the cockpit? I doubt Alixus would have had the know how to unlock the controls or dismantle them, especially as no one in he colony had heard of the Danube class before Sisko showed up. So we can only assume that Sisko didn't turn on the Starfleet equivalent of the handbrake before he left...

[bronnt]

Ugh, yeah. One can only hope that SOMEONE freed the colonists from her, and deprogrammed them.

It's like The Hunted in TNG. Picard walks away from a planet that's a powder keg, and just lets the super soldiers hold the government hostage.

I would love to see a followup to that episode where a chunk of that planet went to hell, and then recovered, with the people of that planet refusing an invitation to the Federation due to Picard's actions in that episode.

It's weird because the writers took something that could be fairly innocent, then villainized it, and then at the end ignored how villainous it was.

There's the fairly innocent idea of wanting to start a colony of ascetics. Sure, if that's the lifestyle you want, then fine, find some people and start up your colony. But forcing people who didn't want to be ascetics into following an ascetic lifestyle by setting them up and lying to them, that's utter bullshit. Then you do this in a manner where you get to be in charge, and it becomes a cult.

Then we get to the point where a colonist is dying but Sisko has the means to save their life (the medkit on the runabout) and she is forcefully denying them the means to reach that life-saving solution. That's murder. Alixus is a literal murderer. But somehow at the end of the episode, conveniently that dead person has no loved ones around who are screaming and wondering why that person had to die. And it's all because they're a "community," which apparently gives no shits about the lives of people who live in the community.

[Archanubis]

What I don't get is that this colony was seemingly not far from DS9 (it predated the discovery of the wormhole and was reached by runabout in not too long a time), and yet had been completely undiscovered for all that time? Being near DS9, it must pretty close to Cardassian space as well, yet not even during the Cardassian War was it found? I can well imagine a Cardassian ship finding it and just wiping it off the map from orbit, assuming it was a Starfleet outpost or whatever as they did on Setlik III.

My guess it was established sometime after the treaty was signed in S4 of TNG (maybe even just before) and before the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole and the establishment of the DMZ. Alexis obviously needed a good deal of time brainwashing the poor rubes who got stuck on her colony ship - not to mention prep time to find the right planet (one that was possibly of no value to the Cardassians or Bajorans), far enough away from Starfleet patrol routes, and set up her "anti-tech-tech" field beforehand.

[Robovski]

I am amazed at all the exceedingly habitable planets and moons that are essentially worthless to the Federation and other star powers we see in the course of Star Trek. Are not just habitable but downright comfortable worlds so common in this universe that they are worth bothering with? There are apparently loads of habitable moons in the Bajoran system alone, so much so that they turf everyone living on one for a power project that will render the moon uninhabitable.