Secret Sun article reads: "I'm not sure why, but Star Trek has been resonating with me lately in a way it hasn't in a long time. It certainly has nothing to do with the recent feature film, it's something else I can't quite put my finger on. Almost in a way The X-Files did - the same kinds of synchronistic emanations have been hitting me left and right. Particularly with Deep Space Nine.Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the redheaded stepchild of the franchise, overshadowed by the august Next Generation and then pummeled by the backlash rightfully inspired by the irredeemable atrocity of Voyager. The similarly-themed Babylon 5 won the hearts of the hardcore geek community at the time as well. It's a shame- DS9 was an incredibly potent bit of spiritual sci-fi infotainment with all kinds of scintillating connections.It was also by far the most subversive of the many spinoffs, turning a jaundiced eye to the imperialistic implications of the Federation itself and the politics of occupation and liberation. It was also soaked to the bone with mysticism, radical politics, prophecy (including a frightening prediction of our near future), AstroGnosticism, as well as other thought-crimes.We looked at DS9 before the election, before I had really dug back into the series and its Prophets concept, which is a lot more interesting and complex than I had previously grokked. This episode ("Shadows and Symbols") is a great example of the Prophets storyline and Captain Sisko's evolution towards his alien apotheosis. Note that the Prophets use symbol and Synchronicity to reawaken Sisko's cosmic consciousness.What is especially interesting in this episode is that it flashes another storyline from an earlier episode, that being the Dickian concept that DS9 was only an elaborate delusion being experienced by a failed sci-fi writer-turned-mental patient."
