Bajoran Episodes

[Arpy]

I went looking for a themed list of Bajoran episodes with little success. Go to Memory Alpha and they’ll tell you every episode a Bajoran has been in in the franchise listed by series. For DS9 it lists the entire series.

What are some of the better Bajoran-centered episodes?

At first glance, I’m going to begin with nodding to TNG’s Ensign Ro and maybe Lower Decks, then say…

Emissary
Progress
In the Hands of the Prophets
Homecoming
The Circle
The Siege
Necessary Evil
The Collaborator
Life Support
Shakaar
Crossfire
The Begotten
Resurrection
Shadows and Symbols

Some that are less enjoyable but that are Bajoran-centric are…

The Storyteller
Fascination
Accession
The Rapture
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
What You Leave Behind

Have I missed any?

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I'm not going to separate them by quality, but here are some suggestions:

Past Prologue is about whether Bajorans need the Federation around or not.
Battle Lines features the departure of the Kai.
Duet is all about what happened at a labour camp on Bajor.
Cardassians is about the Cardassian orphans left on Bajor and how they're treated by Bajorans.
Sanctuary is about the Bajorans deciding whether or not to accept refugees.
Destiny is about Bajoran prophecy.
The Darkness and the Light features the Shakaar resistance cell.
Covenant is about a Bajoran Pah-wraith cult.

 

[Trekker09]

Good list.
“Shakaar” stands out in my mind as one of the more positive portrayals of the Bajorans-- old friends swapping stories over dinner, the canyon battle to defend their farms, the tensions between Kira and Winn--the episode captured the atmosphere of provincial, agricultural people with a strong spiritual tradition.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I went looking for a themed list of Bajoran episodes with little success. Go to Memory Alpha and they’ll tell you every episode a Bajoran has been in in the franchise listed by series. For DS9 it lists the entire series.

What are some of the better Bajoran-centered episodes?

At first glance, I’m going to begin with nodding to TNG’s Ensign Ro and maybe Lower Decks, then say…

Emissary
Progress
In the Hands of the Prophets
Homecoming
The Circle
The Siege
Necessary Evil
The Collaborator
Life Support
Shakaar
Crossfire
The Begotten
Resurrection
Shadows and Symbols

Some that are less enjoyable but that are Bajoran-centric are…

The Storyteller
Fascination
Accession
The Rapture
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
What You Leave Behind

Have I missed any?

No you haven't missed an episode and thank you for bringing back Bajor and the Bajorans in the DS9 topic section. The Bajorans were as complex as the adversaries who haunted them and as much as most characters the religion identified them but it define them. Kira was the heroine who appeared to wrestle with everything she understood and believed had to re-define herself as the conflict seemed to have an interchangeable plane; there were times the monsters she encountered and thought she knew later discovered they were just as victimized by the horrors she experienced. Even facing the ugliness of people from her own race and realizing the events which happened to her people didn't make them but rather brought forth and exposed who they truly are.

Good and Evil was not well defined anymore in this Star Trek, character and integrity will make or break them and it is Kira who learns a ground breaking level of lessons. Starfleet is not as naïve as she thought they were, its just they have been through those tangled facets of conflict many years before and had learned those harsh matters with a sense of wisdom. Something PICARD lacks big league!

The first season of DS9 is a nice education on the Bajoran people, I wish the series kept in that direction between the conflict with the Cardassians while they were still Cardassians because I don't feel it needed a hokey religious ending, but one which tampers and alters the fragments of time and whether wisdom and experience could condone the horrors and atrocities from the past. Emissary was such a great approach to launch that series because I personally felt for many Bajorans and the Cardassians time had been suspended in that part of the galaxy and could their non-linear co-existence can finally be linear in being something new and different for their future.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

When It Rains
Tacking into the Wind

Clearly, the drama in both episodes is driven by the lingering resentment between Bajorans and Cardassians.

 

[Oddish]

Accession is pretty Bajoran-centric, I think. Given that a key aspect of it is the return to Bajor's abandoned caste system.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'd also argue for Things Past: while not focused on any Bajoran character, the leads are forced to embody Bajorans, showing living conditions and justice under the occupation. It is effectively a lesson in Bajoran social history.