Taking "Sanctuary" From Star Trek

The Good: Plot, Some character elements
The Bad: Acting, Some character elements
The Basics: Part of the essential Star Trek Deep Space Nine, this unremarkable episode is difficult to recommend to anyone not keeping up with the series.


"Sanctuary" is one of those essential Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes that very few people remember, despite the fact that it has some memorable aspects. The first item of note is that this episode features the first refugees. . . er, guest stars, from Star Trek: William Schallert appears in the episode as a Bajoran musician having once played Nilz Barris in "The Trouble With Tribbles" (reviewed here!) and Walter Koenig's (Chekov on Star Trek) son Andrew (who also appeared on Growing Pains) makes an appearance as a Skreean. It's no small irony; the episode is about refugees.

"Sanctuary" focuses on the Skreeans, an alien race with a language so different from any known one that the Universal Translator takes some time to evaluate it and offer translations. Once the translator service comes up, everything starts going smoothly, sort of. The Skreeans are refugees fleeing the Gamma Quadrant (now through the wormhole) and now see Bajor as their chance to start over.

The episode quickly gets bogged down in immigrant and refugee issues as the Skreeans overrun the station. Major Kira is forced to reconcile her extreme sympathy for these people with the political knowledge that Bajor cannot handle the refugees living on her planet.

The episode is part of the essential Star Trek Deep Space Nine as it references the Dominion; it turns out the Skreean's homeworld was destroyed by the mysterious Dominion. More than that, it does raise some compelling issues both in Kira's character and Bajoran politics.

However, the language problem at the beginning is pretty much only for fans of the Star Trek franchise. Basically, the writers decided for once to give into the whiny fans who go to conventions and ask, "Why does every alien race speak English?" They don't. That's what the answer always was. It was "They're not speaking English, but because of the Universal Translator we - and our characters - hear it that way." This episode basically points out that to remove this convenient device is to waste ten minutes of airtime. You wouldn't want to do that each episode would you? No, of course not.

More troubling than the annoying lack of translation (which in the bigger picture is fine because it makes sense that it ought to happen somewhere along the line) is the behavioral traits that accompany the lack of communication. While the translator is still adapting, the Skreeans are all uninteresting, uninterested and act like they have problems focusing. It's not just the Skreean children, who have one of the lamest attempts at humor in a Bajoran shop where they're stealing merchandise, but the adults too who are unfocused. When the translator comes back on, there is an almost complete shift in how the characters act.

Strong on plot, middling on character, nothing superlative on acting. Not much to draw anyone but those fans of Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the sophomore season by clicking here!
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4.5/10

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© 2011, 2007, 2001 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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