Exploring the themes of PTSD in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has never been one to shy away from tackling heavy themes, especially regarding war. Nearly half the seven season run revolves around the Dominion War, a conflict that saw massive casualties and changing allegiances on an episode by episode basis.

Where DS9 really shines is when they leave the macro setting and focus on the micro. Focus on the person affected, not the star system or the planet. Not the nameless hundreds dead on a unknown starship blown apart in a cutaway scene. The (For lack of a better word) humanity of the characters, as well as their flaws.

Nog, the first Ferengi accepted into Starfleet, finds himself the focus of one of the best episodes representations of Post Traumatic Stress I think I’ve seen. Nog loses a leg during the battle of AR-558 and finds himself back on Deep Space Nine for medical leave. He walks with the aid of a cane, even through his doctors have told him the shooting pain he’s feeling is all in his head Disembarking the transport ship, he’s greeted with a smiling crew who applaud and joke around with him. He’s obviously uncomfortable and steals away to his chambers.

I’m reminded of when I came home from Afghanistan in 2004. It was a strange time where there was a two front war and the American support was full throated. But coming home to a hero’s welcome, especially when I didn’t feel like one, made me want to curl up in a hole. It’s an immense pressure to be called a hero because then things are expected of you. You have a title you didn’t want and certainly don’t feel you earned thrust upon you by people who want nothing but the best, and you want to push them away.

Nog finds himself in a holosuite program built by Dr. Bashir featuring a lounge singer from 1960s Vegas named Vic Fontaine. He asks Vic to play “I’ll be Seeing You,” a song Bashir played while Nog was still under siege in AR-558. That lounge song is the one thing that brings him any peace and he asks Vic if he can stay there in the holosuite with him, citing that Nog is able to dictate the terms of his rehabilitation. 

During these early stages of rehab, Nog is still showing signs of distress and attacks his oldest friend in the night club when he accuses his date of staring at him. Nog has found himself a nest and resents the outside world, a world he’s trying to escape from, for barging in. As even Vic says, “Kids had a little too much reality if you ask me”.

Nog throws himself into taking care of Vic’s accounting books (An innate gift of the Ferengi) and when finds that through work he can be excited for, his leg no longer hurts and he’s happily entertaining his friends and family. 

He’s a new man! But still stuck in this fantasy world and refusing to leave

The title of the episode is also the title of a popular song from the 30s. It’s Only A Paper Moon is a song about a fake world without love

Say, it's only a paper moon

Sailing over a cardboard sea

But it wouldn't be make-believe

If you believed in me

Yes, it's only a canvas sky

Hanging over a muslin tree

But it wouldn't be make-believe

If you believed in me

Without your love

It's a honky tonk parade

Without your love

It's a melody played in a penny arcade

Vic eventually realizes he’s no longer helping Nog and instead enabling him. Vic ends the program himself and forces Nog to confront the world. It’s frightening, it’s uncertain, but no matter what, it’s worth living.

Compared to you, I'm hollow as a snare drum. Look, kid, I don't know what's going to happen to you out there. All I can tell you is that... you've got to play the cards life deals you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But at least you're in the game. - Vic

War is easy in a lot of ways. There’s always something to do, the paycheck generally arrives on time, you have a clear mission. The real world is hard. There’s too much choice, there’s too many ways things can go wrong and the world fall out from under you. It’s not an easy thing to admit when people insist on calling you a hero.

"When the war began... I wasn't happy or anything, but I was eager. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to prove I had what it took to be a soldier and I saw a lot of combat. I saw a lot of people get hurt. I saw a lot of people die. But I didn't think anything was going to happen to me. And then, suddenly Dr. Bashir is telling me he has to cut my leg off. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it. If I could get shot, if I could lose my leg, anything can happen to me, Vic. I could die tomorrow. I don't know if I'm ready to face that. - Nog

Nog’s fear was his mortality, but the nagging voice inside your head can say many things. For me, it was always “You don’t deserve to feel like this.” For a friend, his voice was calling him a failure for not saving someone’s life. Not matter what the voice says, the reactions are often similar. Rejection of the real world for one we create for ourselves which can lead to our own destruction.

At the end of the episode, Nog tells his family he’s not alright, but he will be. Which is the greatest hope any of us can have.