In the Hands of the Prophets (DS9 episode)

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"In the Hands of the Prophets" is the last episode of the first season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It first aired on June 20, 1993.

Quick Overview: Friction escalates when Vedek Winn arrives on DS9 and discovers Keiko O'Brien is teaching about the Bajoran Prophets as aliens.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Vedek Winn comforts a Bajoran officer

The general plot of the episode is that Keiko, who operates a school at the Deep Space Nine space station in which she teaches children (most of whom are Bajoran), is accused of blasphemy by Vedek Winn, one of the spiritual leaders of Bajor, as she explains the scientific background of the Bajoran wormhole. Winn feels that, as the Bajoran civilization sees in it a religious symbol (the "Temple of the Prophets"), the Bajoran children should be taught this theory in preference to Starfleet physics. After a bomb is detonated in the school, Commander Sisko is forced to seek help from Vedek Bareil, a Bajoran spiritual leader who has a different ideology than Winn.

The episode is significant in that it lays the groundwork for the tension on Bajor that would be more fully realized in DS9's second season. However, it also begins to bring Sisko and Major Kira closer together, as they realize that they both have Bajor's best interests at heart.

This episode explores the creationism vs. evolution controversy, with evolution represented by the United Federation of Planets' scientific explanation of the wormhole phenomenon and creationism represented by the Bajoran spiritual belief that the wormhole is the "Temple of the Prophets". The spiritual vs. scientific argument of the wormhole's nature is largely irrelevant anyway, as Winn is primarily using the conflict to create tension between Bajor and the Federation in the hopes of gaining political power.