To Boldly Split Infiinitives (Part 2)

I never guessed that a post dedicated to Star Trek would be so popular, so, as promised, the second installment. Another of my favorite characters on DS9 was Gul Dukat, the former Cardassian commander of DS9 (back when it was called Terok Nor). His arc was rather interesting, and you could never really be sure of his loyalties. At times he could be an ally, and at others, he could be pure, demonic evil. As a result, he felt like a real person, and was for that reason ten times more frightening. After he allied himself with the Pah'raith (sic), Dukat became even more interesting.

In his comments, Ben noted that sci-fi TV is seldom content to leave its villains unknown. To an extent, this is true with DS9, though they did give their villains quite a bit of time in the shadows. For instance, the Jem'Hadar are still something of a mystery (their ability to cloak themselves naturally, for instance), though the Founders were eventually exposed. However, there is one set of villains that remain incredibly alien, and that is the Pah'raith, the Dark Prophets of Bajor. We never really learn much about them except that they possess people, and are evil versions of the Prophets. Their motives remain inscrutable, and their power remained mysterious, even in the end. I suspect that part of the difficulty with leaving mystery in a show is that science fiction TV is generally aimed a particular niche audience, and seldom does exceedingly well on network TV (though there have been exceptions). As a result, producers and writers always want to be able to say all the loose ends are tied up by the end of a season in case of cancellation. Thus, they rush their mysteries to conclusion so that viewers aren't left unsatisfied should the series go kaput.

Okay, that said, some philosophical questions regarding the Pah'raith: If the Pah'raith are beings of pure energy, where is their consciousness stored? Does this mean that their consciousness is somehow immaterial? Furthermore, what happens to the consciousness of one possessed by a Pah'raith? Can a person be held accountable for acts committed while possessed? Some things on which to chew.