Star Trek Episode Exposes Enduring Racism Starfleet Doesn’t Want You To See
The Federation! Starfleet! The bastions of acceptance and tolerance, except when they realize different people are actually, like, different.
We see an example of this in one of the best episodes of the franchise’s best series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Season 5’s “The Ship” puts the heroes under pressure—enough pressure that Miles O’Brien’s prejudices against Klingons bubble to the surface, striking out at Worf.
The Ship
“The Ship” finds Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks) leading a mineral survey on the uninhabited Torga IV that’s interrupted when a Jem’Hadar fighter crashes nearby. With Starfleet still short on intel about the Dominion, Sisko is determined to take possession of the vessel.
When the Dominion arrives to take the ship back, Sisko refuses to give it up, in spite of losing everyone on his team except for three other members of the series’ leading cast and the wounded Crewman Muñiz (F.J. Rio).
With the five heroes trapped inside the crashed Jem’Hadar ship, short on medical supplies, and bombarded by Jem’Hadar artillery, things get tense between the good guys—no moreso than between Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Worf (Michael Dorn).
O’Brien And Muñiz
Though he’s only a minor character, F.J. Rio had actually appeared as Crewman Enrique Muñiz twice before in Deep Space Nine‘s fourth season, in each case working closely with O’Brien. Early in “The Ship” we see O’Brien looking to Muñiz as a protege, making the latter’s death that much more heartbreaking, as well as putting O’Brien on a collision course with Worf.
“The Ship” is the first episode to establish that the energy blasts emitting from Jem’Hadar rifles include some kind of anti-coagulant, making it more difficult for wounded enemies to stop bleeding. Before reaching the relative safety of the crashed Jem’Hadar ship, Muñiz is wounded by one of the weapons.
With no medical supplies, the officers are helpless in treating Muñiz’s wounds, though he lives long enough to stop a Jem’Hadar intruder before it can kill Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) and O’Brien.
O’Brien And Worf
Muñiz only gets worse, and as Dax tries to comfort O’Brien, Worf interrupts and gives voice to what they all know: “He will not see tomorrow.” He urges O’Brien tell Muñiz what’s coming so the crewman can “prepare for death.”
For the first time—in spite of O’Brien and Worf appearing both in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine—things between these two get ugly. Miles ends up nose-to-nose with the Klingon, telling him no one is allowed to give up on Muñiz.
Later, after Muñiz continues to not only bleed out but to hallucinate, Worf says of the crewman’s condition, “That is no way for anyone to die.” He seems like he’s actually trying to be empathetic with O’Brien, but it doesn’t have the desired result.
When Worf suggests what he might do as a Klingon—a mercy-killing to end Muñiz’s pain and restore his honor—something in O’Brien snaps.
“I’m not some bloodthirsty Klingon looking for an excuse to murder my friend.”
Things get physical, with O’Brien taking an ill-advised swing at Worf, and Sisko eventually stepping in to break things up.
O’Brien And Klingons
I’m not suggesting O’Brien is some kind of virulent, irredeemable racist. The guy’s in a horrific situation and under unbelievable pressure.
That doesn’t change the fact that when everything going on causes those words and thoughts to bubble up from inside O’Brien at Worf, they bubble up from inside O’Brien.
Nor is this the first time we’ve heard such sentiments from O’Brien. During TNG and DS9 he is fond of referring to the Cardassians as “The Cardies.”
It’s also important to remember even though it doesn’t play a large role in the plot of the episode, “The Ship” takes place during the third Federation-Klingon War. Those anti-Klingon feelings O’Brien harbors were already probably a little closer to the surface than normal.
Akvoh
O’Brien and Worf bury the hatchet in the cargo bay of the Defiant after the officers are rescued.
Worf finds Miles there with Muñiz’s corpse, where the Klingon insists O’Brien is performing Akvoh—a Klingon tradition in which warriors stay by their comrade’s body to keep away predators until the fallen Klingon’s spirit can make its journey to StoVoKor.
O’Brien calls it “a fine tradition,” and Worf joins him in watching over Muñiz.
While these two are able to mend their friendship, “The Ship” still exposes the kind of prejudice in the Federation that’s supposed to be a thing of the past, and that’s for the best. Since racism and bigotry endure in the real world, how can Star Trek talk to us if it doesn’t reflect that unfortunate aspect of humanity?
