Bareil Antos

Species:	Bajoran
Occupation:	Vedek
Status:	Deceased (2371)
Died:	2371
Played by:	Philip Anglim

For the mirror universe counterpart, please see Bareil Antos (mirror).

Bareil Antos was a prominent Bajoran spiritual leader during the years immediately after the Cardassian Occupation. He was the leading candidate to become the next kai after Opaka, but withdrew his candidacy shortly before the election took place, clearing the way for the elevation of Winn Adami to kai. He later played an important role in the negotiation of the first Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty, and died during the negotiations.

Early life

Bareil spent his early years living under the yoke of Cardassian rule. He grew up in the Relliketh refugee camp. (DS9: "Shadowplay")

At the age of five, Bareil met a Bajoran monk who grabbed him the first time on his ear, to feel his pagh. As a chronic misbehaver, Bareil became his favorite victim and the monk was able to "virtually squeeze the pagh out of his ear with his thumb and forefinger." (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

During the waning years of the Occupation, Bareil became a gardener at the Bajoran Monastery of the Kai and his own goal was to plant the most beautiful Feloran bromiliads on the planet. However, he eventually devoted his life to the Prophets, becoming a vedek. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

Career

After the disappearance of Kai Opaka in 2369, Bareil became the leading candidate to replace her in that role. Bareil spent the time before the election in seclusion, but was drawn to space station Deep Space 9 by his opponent, Winn Adami. He decided to visit the station after a school run by Keiko O'Brien was bombed by Bajoran fundamentalists who were against her teaching that the wormhole prophets were aliens. Bareil hoped to act as a peace mediator. While Bareil was aboard the station, Neela, a Bajoran crewmember of DS9, attempted to assassinate him. The assassination attempt was really engineered by Vedek Winn, who wished to be kai and who wanted to eliminate her rival, Bareil. The attempt failed and Bareil was favored to be the next kai. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

Bareil aided Major Kira Nerys in exposing the plot to overthrow the Bajoran government by Jaro Essa and the Circle, who was unwittingly being aided by the Cardassians. Kira was hurt in a shuttle crash as she was trying to deliver evidence of the plot to the Chamber of Ministers. Bareil sent his aides to rescue Kira, had her wounds tended to at his monastery, and helped disguise her and Jadzia Dax as monks. Bareil accompanied the women to the Chamber of Ministers, where they presented evidence that foiled Jaro's coup. (DS9: "The Siege")

When Bareil was tied to the infamous Kendra Valley Massacre, he withdrew from consideration for kai, and Vedek Winn was elected. No one knew that Bareil had taken the blame for Kai Opaka's role in the massacre. She had allowed her own son and 42 other Bajorans to be killed during the Occupation to prevent over 1,200 deaths in the Kendra Valley. Bareil took the fall to protect Opaka's memory. (DS9: "The Collaborator")

The idea of having Bareil be falsely accused of collaborating with the Cardassians was inspired by a brief story pitch which was suggested by Gary Holland. The plot concept focused on a Bajoran man who, although not Bareil himself, had some similarities to how Bareil is depicted in the final version of "The Collaborator". "'My' Bajoran had a past and a secret that Kira had to discover," stated Holland, pointing out two of the likenesses. Also, the man's discretion regarding the secret crime, which was the murder of Kira's father, was because he was covering for someone else. It was Ira Steven Behr who changed the character to Bareil, also making the crime be one of collaboration. "We had talked all year about Bareil becoming the next kai," remembered Behr. "All year! And during this conversation, we started talking about a collaborator, and I suddenly realized, 'We don't want Bareil as the kai. What the hell good is that going to do to us? He's a friend, and he's not going to cause any trouble for the Federation.'" (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 147)

In 2371, Bareil visited the station to celebrate the Bajoran Gratitude Festival. He became infected by Zanthi fever, which Lwaxana Troi had transmitted to those at the station party. This caused misplaced amorousness in people who had been near her, and caused latent, subconscious attraction to others. Bareil amorously chased Dax, became jealous of Benjamin Sisko, and hit Sisko; Dax subsequently punched Bareil. Doctor Bashir was able to cure him of the fever. (DS9: "Fascination")

After the election, Bareil joined Winn as her key adviser in negotiating the Bajoran-Cardassian Treaty. Bareil negotiated for five months with Legate Turrel. Just before the final treaty negotiations, he was injured in a plasma explosion on board a Bajoran transport vessel. Dr. Bashir was able to bring him back from the brink of death, but needed to expose him to dangerous levels of neurogenic radiation in order to do so. Bashir told the vedek that he should be placed in stasis for an indefinite period of time, until a cure for the radiation damage could be developed. Bareil insisted that Bashir find another solution, so he could remain conscious to help Winn. Bareil believed it was the Prophets who spared him in the explosion so that he could ensure the success of the peace talks. Dr. Bashir, on the orders of Bareil, gave him an experimental drug that let him function for a few days. However, the drug did irreversible damage to the vedek's organs, leading to their replacement with implants. In spite of this, the damage spread, destroying part of his brain. At Kira's urging, Bashir replaced the damaged brain region with an artificial positronic implant, so that Bareil could continue to advise Winn. Soon after the peace treaty was signed, the remainder of Bareil's brain was destroyed. After Bashir gently refused to proceed with any further surgeries, saying he would fight Kira if he had to, Kira and Bashir decided to allow him to die, rather than replace his entire brain with a machine, for Bashir believed that, though Bareil would still look and talk like his old self, he wouldn't be himself. (DS9: "Life Support")

Personal life

Even after becoming a vedek, Bareil still loved to tend his garden. He also enjoyed playing springball. (DS9: "Shadowplay") He became romantically involved with Major Kira Nerys in 2370, after meeting her during a visit to Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Shadowplay")

During the attempted coup led by Jaro Essa, Bareil and Kira's relationship started to blossom. After Kira was dismissed by Jaro from the space station, she stayed at Bareil's monastery. On Bajor, Kira and Bareil grew close, and Bareil allowed Kira to consult one of the Bajoran Orbs for guidance. She had a vision that showed her and Bareil as lovers. (DS9: "The Circle") Bareil and Kira became lovers until his death. (DS9: "The Siege", "Life Support")

While DS9: "The Collaborator" was being scripted, intimate aspects of Bareil's relationship with Kira were removed from early drafts of the script. Gary Holland felt strongly that what Bareil was undergoing elsewhere in the installment would seem to be of more concern to Kira if the episode portrayed exactly how close they had become and the producers ultimately agreed with him, allowing for the previously excised elements to be reinstated. Holland also argued for Orb scenes involving Bareil to be in the episode. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, pp. 147-148)

The DS9 writing staff became dissatisfied with Bareil's relationship with Kira by the time the third season episode "Defiant" was being written. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 98) Finishing his romance with Kira proved to be one motive for writing the character of Bareil out of the series, in the later Season 3 installment "Life Support". "This Bareil relationship, which should have been deepening the Kira character, did not seem to be fulfilling that requirement," related Ira Steven Behr. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) Ronald D. Moore added, "We came to the conclusion that it was time to move away from the Bareil/Kira relationship anyway, because some people loved it, some fans, but we just didn't see it going anywhere. It didn't seem to have a lot of magnetism coming across on screen. Once that decision was made, that changed the whole complexion of the show." Robert Hewitt Wolfe commented that Bareil's importance in Kira's life meant his death had an impact on the viewers. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90)

Appendices

Appearances

• DS9:
  • "In the Hands of the Prophets" (season 1)
  • "The Circle" (season 2)
  • "The Siege"
  • "Shadowplay"
  • "The Collaborator"
  • "Fascination" (season 3)
  • "Life Support"
  • "Resurrection" (mirror universe counterpart) (season 6)

Background information

Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe revised his original concept of Bareil, during development of DS9 Season 1 ender "In the Hands of the Prophets". "When I created Bareil in that script," he said, "I saw him as a wise old guy, sort of a Gandhi figure. And Michael Piller said, 'No, he should be young and vigourous.' I think he always saw Bareil as a romantic hero, so the relationship with Kira was more his idea than mine." (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 81)

Bareil Antos was portrayed by actor Philip Anglim. Bareil's given name (which was not revealed until "Resurrection") is a reference to the character Anton ("Tony") in West Side Story. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 511)

The depiction of Bareil in "Fascination" displeased Ira Steven Behr. "I didn't think the Bareil stuff worked that well," he complained. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 88)

While "Life Support" was in development, Bareil replaced a young Federation ambassador, who was conceived as being akin to John F. Kennedy and was proposed in the original story document for the episode. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106; Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90) As in the aired version of the installment, the diplomat was dying and arrived at DS9 aboard a damaged shuttle. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90) "The same things happen: he dies on the table, Bashir brings him back to life and then it becomes his gradual descent into madness–Frankenstein frankly," recalled Ronald D. Moore. However, as the DS9 writing staff were breaking the story, Moore began to feel that the plot's central character, which would have been played by a guest star, wasn't important enough to make the audience care. "But if this guy was Bareil [...] then you've got Kira involved and it brings so much more to it," Moore said. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) He remembered, "As the audience I said, 'This guy should be Bareil.'" (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90)

There was some discussion about deciding what extent to make Bareil suffer in "Life Support". In the initial draft of the episode, the writers were going to torture him even more than they eventually did. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106; Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90) "We were going to have Bareil's body completely collapse," Ron Moore reflected, "and they were going to put his brain in an android body, to go the next step and go for Frankenstein." (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90) Moore continued, "So by the end of the episode he was Frankenstein the monster, but I think Rick [Berman] felt that was taking it too far." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) In their unofficial reference book Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages (p. 90), Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman liken Bareil in this imagined scenario to Spock in TOS: "Spock's Brain".

Nonetheless, the decision to kill the character of Bareil was made. "I just felt that no one was dying to do a Bareil show," explained Ira Steven Behr. "We never got letters from fans saying 'We love Bareil' [....] No one was losing sleep over Bareil. It just wasn't clicking." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) Ron Moore concurred, "He served his purpose for a while, and then we felt that the character [...] had run out of steam." (AOL chat, 1997)

Although fans didn't initially respond much to Bareil, the audience had (in the words of Robert Wolfe) "gotten to know Bareil" by the time he was killed off in "Life Support". (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106; Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, p. 90) Fan mail regarded the character in an extremely positive light after his life and recurring appearances were terminated. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 106) In fact, Bareil proved so popular with fans that there was a campaign to bring him back. Ronald D. Moore responded, in March 1997 (prior to the airing of "Resurrection"), "I'm afraid that the truth is that the writing staff simply isn't interested in Vedek Bareil [....] We can't really bring him back unless we, the writers, suddenly find a [...] passion for the character and I don't think that's going to happen. The show is ultimately an expression of our particular likes and dislikes and unfortunately Bareil is not one of those 'likes.' The show has moved on and so has Kira." (AOL chat, 1997)

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