TNG/DS9 Rewatch, The Maquis and Preemptive Strike

Been doing a TNG rewatch, now concurrent with DS9, this year, because it was time and because I need to watch something with a hopeful future these days.

Just finished Preemptive Strike, only 1 episode left. I have opinions and you're probably not going to like them. Or maybe you won't care, I dunno.

The whole Maquis arc has left me feeling... disgusted with the Federation.

Especially with Admiral Nychayev. I feel my hackles rise ever time I see her smug face show up on screen.

The whole way the Federation essentially bent over backwards and pulled it's pants down for the Cardassians, in the name of avoiding another war, is just sickening and cowardly. Knowing that it was Nychayev who did the primary negotiating and who came up with the whole "let them have these planets" thing... ugh.

They knew the Cardassians never had any good faith whatsoever, and they were intending on driving out those colonists through unofficial means, or manufacturing whatever excuse they could find to send in warships.

The Federation has never been perfect, but one of the things I've always loved about it is that it always tries to improve, and (unlike so many other Scifi "Utopias") that is it composed of human beings or human-like being working together to make a better future, instead of God-like AIs or 9 foot tall demigods rulers.

This whole arc disgusted me and also felt so timely and relevant for today, even though it aired 20 years ago. Nychayev and others like her remind me so much of "Centrist" politicians who bend over backwards to appease fascists, all in the name of preserving a peace that would never last anyway.

What I didn't expect is being disgusted by Picard too. He essentially fed both Sito Jaxa and Ro Laren to the wolves. Both troubled young women, both Bajorans, both who didn't really fit anywhere, and he hyped them up on all this praise about how he believed in them and then sent them to these high-risk low reward missions that were both likely suicide missions.

(Yeah, they both "volunteered" for the mission, he didn't "force" them to do it. But it's pretty easy to see how he essentially manipulated them into it by preying upon their desire for acceptance and praise, while also keeping one hand ready to threaten)

The way he immediately started threatening Ro with court martials the moment she expressed any doubts whatsoever about the mission, I had to pause and walk away for a while. Ugh.

It was all for nothing, since the Federation ended up at war with Cardassia anyway.

Sigh, anyways. At least I have the badassness of the Dominion War to look forward to as my DS9 rewatch continues after I finish up All Good Things next. The Dominion War: where the Federation finally grows a frickin' spine.

I didn't expect to feel this emotionally impacted during this rewatch, since in general I am jaded as hell and expect the worst.