In the wonderful world ofStar Trekthere have been a plethora of memorable characters. The protagonists range from some ofthe best starship captainsin the whole science fiction genre, tounlikely heroes from the lower decks. The franchise has also featured some terrifying antagonists.The body horror Borgcome to mind, as well as the body changing Founders. What makesStar Trekso great, however, was its inclusion of character who fell between good and bad, friend or foe. One of the greatest examples from the franchise was the Maquis. Who exactly were this faction, and what was their purpose?
WhenStar Trekfirst hit the small screen, it was withan idealized view of the humans of the future. The Federation was a utopia where peace, love, and freedom ruled within society, and all the issues that befell people were from outsiders who did not share in the same vision of unity. Things started to change, however, duringThe Next Generation.The cracks began to show, and there were suggestions that everything was not as perfect as it appeared. Then camethe exceptionally darkDeep Space 9andthe mixed-reviewedVoyager,who wasted no time in pointing out all the issues of the Federation. At the heart of this was the Maquis, a resistance group of Federation born people of various different races, civilians and ex-Starfleet officers alike. These people had grown tired of the Federation’s complacency against the Cardassian empire, and decided to do something about it.
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The Cardassians at the time, who were fairly evil characters up until this point, had become especially horrific,occupying various Federation colony home worldsin the Demilitarized Zone. The Federation, after treaties were drawn up in the late 2360s, ended up letting the Cardassians have these planets in order to secure peace between the two rivaling empires, constantly walking a thin line between peace and war. The inhabitants of these worlds, as well as many others who disagreed with how the Federation handled treaties, took issue with this decision. They chose to bear arms and fight back, against the wishes of the Federation. They organized themselves, and the Maquis were born.
Starfleet openly considered the Maquis traitors and condemned their actions. The Cardassians named them terrorists, which, considering some of the actions they took, could be considered accurate categorization no matter what the cause. The Maquis were smart, and evasive of both Federation and Cardassian empire. They managed to remain a threat (for want of a better word) for much of theStar Trektimeline, although their actions were often justified if not a bit extreme. At one point, they almost managed to declare themselves an independent state from the Federation, but werestopped fairly drastically by the Dominionbefore anything could be set in stone. From then on, their power fizzled.
The Maquis quickly became a symbol of an end to oppression, a group of people who would do whatever it took to free people from those who wanted to control them. They chose to not sit idly by and let their home worlds be taken. It was a refreshing, if not unorthodox, breath of fresh air from the bureaucracy that seemed to constantly slow the Federation from protecting people on the fringes of their space. The Federation was constantly afraid of provoking those who dwelled outside the comfort of their home, to the point that they never truly did anything.
A great example of this was in a precursor Maquis episode, when USS Phoenix captain and old friend offan sweetheart Miles O’Brien, Benjamin Maxwell, fired on an allegedly unarmed Cardassian space station, one he believed was secretly a military supply port. He notified Starfleet of his suspicions, even providing them with proof, but they did nothing. They simply sat on the report he sent them while trying to figure out what was the best, and tactful, way of handling the situation. Maxwell grew so sick of their bureaucracy and waiting that he took matters into his own hands, sparking the seed in the heads of other disgruntled Federation members to do the same.
The Maquis were interesting as not only was their fight for justice a fair one, but audiences got the pleasure of meeting a lot of them along the way, especially those aboard the lost ship inVoyager.Their fight against the Cardassian oppressors and land stealers was just in many ways; however, it was often extreme, boarding on terrorism rather than righteous defense in order to survive.Morally ambiguous Captain Siskosummed the situation up perfectly in defense of the Maquis and their mission:
Out there, in the Demilitarized zone, all the problems have not been solved yet. There are no saints, just people; angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not!
As Sisko himself has said,it’s easy to be a saint when living in paradise. But on the fringes of Federation space, these people have been abandoned to fend for themselves. That is just what the Maquis are doing, like any other independent nation.
