#Terry Farrell deserved better

[tuttle-did-it]

I also had a problem with it, cos will admit Ezri never grew on me. This is not Nicole de Boer’s fault- she played the character as written.

but I think it was a mistake to make her a Dax.

their excuse reason that Jadzia and Lenara could not be together was that Trills are not supposed to just pick up and live the life of the old host, but live their own life with a new partner, new job, new circumstances.

then they bring Ezri right back to DS9 to replace Dax. so obviously that excuse to keep Jadzia away from her wife was rubbish. I, like Worf, was not over losing Jadzia. Having a sudden replacement that’s was her but wasn’t her was very upsetting. And since this version of Dax was afraid of everything, and hugely insecure, it made it easier to compare and prefer Jadzia’s vibrancy and confidence over Ezri.

I know what they were trying to do- M*A*S*H discovered that of your going to replace a character, you bring in their opposite so the two of them could not be compared. Frank Burns replaced with Charles Winchester III. Potter replacing Henry. BJ replacing Trapper. All completely the opposite of the person who was there so comparing them was apple and oranges.

and they started out, right- Ezri was 180* from Jadzia. The problem was, by making her a Dax, she suddenly is Jadzia’s replacement. And Jadzia was a hard act to follow. So Ezra’s nervousness, her unprofessionalism, her insecurity- instead of character traits to grow on, these were just reasons too miss Jadzia more. No longer apples and oranges, just Dax and a less better version of Dax.

this is not Nicole’s fault. She played Ezri exactly as instructed, she played her well. She did exactly what was on the page. But part of me never forgave Ezri for not being Jadzia.

They should have never made her a Dax. Because I never got to appreciate Ezri, I was just constantly reminded that she was not Jadzia.

So when she failed to help Garak, I wasn’t like ‘aww poor baby worm is struggling. How endearing. She will grow and learn,’ it was just ‘she’s not competent. This is inexcusable. She shouldn’t be here. She’s not good enough to be on this crew. She’s a shadow of who Jadzia Dax was.’

it was unfair to the audience, because it made it harder to appreciate her character. It was unfair to the DS9 characters like Worf and Sisko (but all of them, really) because she’s not Dax but they have to accept her anyway, even though she wasn’t doing a good job helping people like Garak. And poor Garak is on his own cos here’s this baby worm terrified of her own shadow, how can she possibly help him? And, it was unfair to Nicole, who was doing a very good job with what she had.

And it proved that the whole ‘trills have to live a different lifetime’ bs excuse to keep Jadzia out of a lesbian relationship with her former wife Lenara was, as predicted, a bs excuse.

basically, what I’m saying is, the writers lost my trust over Jadzia/Ezri in season 7 and never got it back.

Afterimage is one of my favorite DS9 episodes ever and, in my opinion, the most underrated episode featuring Garak. But I have A LOT of problems with it, and they can pretty much be summed up by this reply to someone’s post on the episode. I screenshotted this because I don't want to derail that person's post more than I have already whoops.

But I have a lot of thoughts so here's a rant! below the read more, please mind content warnings for discussions of abuse, substance use, and suicide.

[also, @ettaberrytea , please let me know if you want me to remove the screenshot]

The promotion thing I can live with because it seemed like an inevitable part of her remaining on the station. That seemed like the only likely conclusion of her character for this episode even on my first watch.

But Garak's anxiety and claustrophobia being 'fixed' at the end actually upsets me. There's the obvious 'it's not that easy!'. But also, she did not provide any kind of actual therapeutic technique that would help him here. Which I KNOW is nitpicking but I think given the context, less so.

The big problem for me is a bit more complicated. It's obviously not just 'He doesn't like small spaces'. Even with Afterimage having the most explicit mentions of this part of Tain's abuse, the focus is on claustrophobia. And it just really irks me how Ezri presses him and presses him about it and doesn't try to delve into what seems to be a huge reason behind it. That is, besides 'you blame yourself for this just like how I blame myself for getting space sick', which... I'm gonna be honest felt like a really unfair comparison.

To me, a lot of this doesn't feel on purpose/like she's supposed to be learning still. I will say that her delivery in this reminds me so much of myself in social work classes! I've been there! But especially as the episode continues, it feels more and more like this is supposed to be a huge breakthrough and she's cracked the code and this all makes sense psychologically.

Also, that scene with Garak trying to open the airlock just. Hurts so, so bad for me. It's one of my favorite moments of Garak's character and it hits me really hard.

But the fact that the scene after it is a nice little 'sitting in the holosuite' scene staring at the sunset off a cliff... I just kinda hate that! But I really liked their conversation and Garak saying that it's not really such a large space and none of it is real -- that's one of my favorite moments in Afterimage, actually.

Also I have to say this somewhere, and this is absolutely based on my interpretation only. But that airlock scene felt like Garak being the most explicitly close to suicide we've seen since The Wire. To have him just sitting in a holosuite [on a cliffside no less] isn't a great followup to that, even setting aside my interpretation. And to kinda respond to the reply I screenshotted above, I feel like it's not such a stretch that he relapsed.

I think Ezri is a great character and like I said, this is one of my favorite DS9 episodes! But I've never talked about this in detail and wanted to put it out there.

Reminder that this is just my opinion, and if you have a different take on this episode, I'd love to hear it!

[dickspacenine]

If Jadzia had to die no matter what, she should’ve died in Change of Heart

[sshbpodcast]

Top Five Star Trek DS9 Episodes

by Ames

Oh my prophets, we’ve made it back through the wormhole and concluded all of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and you know what? Overall it’s pretty damn good! Arguably the best as a series, we might say (and we did say), and all we’ve left to do is wrap it up in a nice hasperat burrito now.

In doing so and in typical A Star to Steer Her By fashion, we’ve also assembled the best episodes of the whole series into one big list. Check out the discussion in our DS9 finale episode here (series discussion starts at 1:58:12 after the season chatter), featuring even more bests from our special guest star Liz. And open up the Orb of Prophecy to read all the highlights below; you don’t have to be emissary to the prophets to enjoy these.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“Blood Oath”: Caitlin The Klingons have been one of the most popular races in the galaxy, and Klingon episodes are just as fun, especially when they put in the work to feature some blasts from the relative past whom we saw in The Original Series! And some extra respect to this one because Kor says Trans Rights.

“Hard Time”: Ames Miles suffered a whole lot through the years, so the best of his suffering deserves to be on the best list, doesn’t it? Colm Meaney acts his ass off, the storytelling is clean and interesting, and we actually acknowledge mental health (just a little bit) for a change!

“The Wire”: Ames Speaking of actors who act their ass off. Andrew Robinson’s portrayal of Garak was something we just couldn’t get enough of (can we push for Star Trek: Garak perhaps?), and this episode takes the cake with just sublime acting from one of our favorite assassi–  er, tailors.

“Rejoined”: Caitlin She started off rough, but Jadzia really began to bring it at some point in the show and we’ve targeted this episode as where we really started giving a damn about her. Finally, we see both the emotional weight of being a joined Trill and the actual acting chops of Terry Farrell all in one place!

“The Quickening”: Jake Similarly, Julian also started off really rough, but when that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed outlook started losing its brightness and bushiness (and when he stopped creeping on women for a while), we got to really see him as a character, and this episode highlights how great he can really be.

“Far Beyond the Stars”: Ames What more can we say about “Far Beyond the Stars,” an episode that we totally changed guest star Justus’s mind about when we covered it? What could have been a detrimental trope turns into a captivating and pertinent inspection of racism, storytelling, and history. Thank the prophets for this one!

“In the Pale Moonlight”: Chris It’s not a fake: our love for this episode is 100% real! It’s so excellent to see some really difficult ethical decisions get made on this show, highly contrasting the angelic Starfleet portrayals of the past. Science fiction is all about debate – is all about reflecting on the issue – and those are discussions we love to have!

“Duet”: Chris, Jake Two votes for this stellar two-hander that is just an actor’s banquet for excellent character development and every opportunity to utterly devour the scenery. Om nom nom scenery. Kira Nerys started off as one of the most well-written and consistent characters on the show, and she only got better and better from there.

“Second Skin”: Caitlin, Jake Speaking of Kira! Here’s some more well-deserved love for Nana Visitor who donned some Cardassian makeup and really went with it in this excellent character piece that turned her into everything she hated. Talk about an identity crisis!

“It’s Only a Paper Moon”: Caitlin, Chris At the start of the series, who would have thought that the juvenile delinquent character Nog would grow to be one of the most beloved on the show, with one of the most developed arcs? Credit to Aron Eisenberg for the nuance, heartbreak, struggle, and joy that he brought to Nog over the years.

“The Visitor”: Ames, Chris, Jake The Ben-Jake relationship proves again and again to be one of the strongest tenets at the core of Deep Space Nine and this episode really goes for it in telling a spellbinding tale of a boy’s love for his father. With added alternate realities, subspace shenanigans, and excellent guest acting thrown in to boot!

“Captive Pursuit”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake The one episode that made it on all our lists is actually one of the earliest in the series because we all just loved Tosk so much. What an excellent beginning to the series that starts exploring the ethics of how we treat other people and what we can do about that right out of the gate. We are Tosk!

—

See also: our Bottom Five Star Trek DS9 Episodes list for the less glowing but still fun to hate on stuff!

Considering the wormhole aliens’ nonlinear existence, can Deep Space Nine really be over? Well, I guess yes it can, because our journey through Star Trek must continue! We’ve got more fun planned for this page, so keep watching us here, listen to weekly episodes at our home on Soundcloud, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and we’ll see you in the Delta Quadrant soon!

[milftrickster]

thoughts on ezri dax?

I LOVE HER SO MUCH OH MY GOD SHE DESERVED BETTER. 

Yes Jadzia deserved better and the situation regarding Terry Farrell’s departure from the show sucked but that doesnt mean that ezri wasnt a great character in her own right. She deserved more plot that wasnt just about romance.

I would have loved to see more about her grappling with her new memories.

[philippageorgiou]

for the ask game: ds9

thanks for asking !

the first character i ever fell in love with: kira nerys duh a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: don’t have one!  a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: hmmmmm don’t have one my ultimate favorite character™: kira prettiest character: jadzia my most hated character: kira’s mediocre boyfriends ❤️ jk but they’re the first to come to mind so...... my OTP: lenara/jadzia and sisko/kasidy and bashir/garak of course my NOTP: there are so many terrible canon ships i don’t even know where to begin with this akdhjgd favorite episode: haven’t rewatched ds9 in full recently enough to answer this totally accurately but far beyond the stars! i also love move along home and if you’re gonna judge you can fuck right off saddest death: ok this is hard............ i was too busy being mad about terry farrell’s treatment to be really sad about jadzia and ziyal comes to mind but i was more sad about the wasted narrative potential lmao i don’t have a proper answer for this favorite season: one of the later ones! i’d have to think about this least favorite season: i know everyone says season 1 sucks and yes it does but i had a great time so it hurts for me to have to give that as my answer for this character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: don’t have one my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: i love dukat as a villain but he’s such a piece of trash that to even put him under the ‘fave’ category is a bit much so take that part with a grain of salt or ten my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: kira really never did catch a break but also. ziyal :( also terry farrell  my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: don’t have one my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: i don’t have one!

send me a fandom!

[aion-rsa]

How Babylon 5 Made Star Trek Better

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

There are a few patient zeroes for  proving serialized storytelling on TV viable. Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Battlestar Galactica, and the so-called “golden era” of TV aren’t possible without a few under-the-radar precedents. Different critics will point to different examples, but when it comes to science fiction and fantasy shows, that list gets a lot smaller. Some might say Buffy’s interconnected season-long arcs are the most influential, while Trekkies tend to lean heavily on the innovation and risk-taking of Deep Space Nine’s serialization in later seasons. In fact, one prominent DS9 podcast — The Rules of Acquisition — has effectively argued that DS9 created the foundation for all contemporary TV that followed. And then there’s The X-Files. 

All of these examples are valid because, clearly, in the late 1990s, there was a vortex swirling that led to a revitalization of TV conventions that was most noticeable in genre shows. Buffy and DS9 probably deserve equal credit, but in terms of its influence on science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, the series that is (sometimes) overlooked is Babylon 5. By July 1994, Babylon was wrapping up its first season, and the future of science fiction on TV would never be the same… 

In retrospect, Babylon 5 made Star Trek better in the 1990s. Like Paul McCartney being inspired by the Beach Boys in the ‘60s, Babylon 5 was the scrappy ‘90s sci-fi underdog that, in a roundabout way, inspired the best of Trek to be better. Here’s why…

Did Deep Space Nine rip-off Babylon 5? (Or vice versa?)

If you were watching sci-fi TV in the ‘90s, you probably had at least an argument about whether or not the two TV shows about people living on a space station were ripping off each other. I had an ill-informed one with my dad in 1995. My dad claimed he thought it was clear that Deep Space Nine (which premiered on January 3rd, 1993) had ripped-off Babylon 5 (which premiered on January 26th, 1994), and I claimed the reverse. Neither of us was right, but it’s easy to see why fans we’re so perplexed at the time. Here’s the list:

Both shows featured a cast of humans living with aliens on a space station, trying to work out various peace deals. 

Both had no-nonsense female first officers, Kira on DS9, Ivanova on B5 (though in the B5 pilot episode, “The Gathering,” the first officer was Laurel Takashima, played by Tamlyn Tomita, who very recently turned up on Star Trek: Picard.)

In the first season, both had lead characters who were “Commanders” not “Captains.”

Both of these Commanders (Sisko and Sinclair) were veterans of major battles/wars, and their characters were (initially) defined by this experience.

Both space stations were positioned next to a strategic portal through space; the Wormhole in DS9 and a major JumpGate in B5.

And finally, both shows expected the viewer to have watched some, if not all, of the previous episodes in order to know what was going on. Again, in the ‘90s, this was not common for any TV.

So, what’s the deal? Well, as Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has gone-on record saying many, many times: “Were Pillar and Berman [DS9 creators] aware of B5 at any time? No. Of that, I am also confident. The only question in my mind is to what degree did the development people steer them?” 

Babylon 5 had been in development since 1987, but there’s not really any reason to believe that camp Star Trek was super-interested in ripping off a space station show and using it for its own purposes. So, the theory floated by JMS and others is basically this: Because B5 had been pitched to Paramount before landing with Warner Bros, it’s feasible that Paramount Studio executives encouraged the DS9 team to use various elements from the B5 pitch without telling them about the existence of B5. There’s also one rumor that states that Warner and Paramount were planning on launching a joint network in the early ‘90s, and that from a studio-level point-of-view, at some point in time, Babylon 5 and DS9 WERE THE SAME SHOW, even if the people making the shows were unaware of that. That last one is pretty out-there, and also hasn’t been publicly verified, so, there’s a good bet it might not be accurate. 

Bottom line: Today, most consider the similarities between B5 and DS9 to be superficial and mostly coincidental. It’s water under the space bridge, Wormhole or Jumpgate. And yet, there are more concrete connections.

The Babylon 5 + Star Trek connections 

In front of the camera, Babylon 5 had a few obvious Star Trek connections. The recurring villain Alfred Bester (named after the famous SF novelist) was played by Walter Koenig, best known to Trekkies as Pavel Chekov. Patricia Tallman, who played telepath Lyta Alexander on B5, was a familiar stunt performer on The Next Generation and DS9 (often doubling for Gates McFadden, Nana Visitor, and Terry Farrell ) and also appeared in notable episodes like “Starship Mine.” On top of that, at the height of the rivalry between B5 and Star Trek, Majel Barret — the first lady of Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry’s widow — guest-starred in the 1996 Babylon 5 episode “Point of No Return.” She played a character named Lady Morella, the widow of the Emperor of the planet Centauri Prime. This cameo was a calculated move on the part of B5 creator JMS and Barret. Basically, the goal here was to send a message to all fandoms: Be cool.

Behind-the-scenes, there were a few more big Star Trek connections. Harlan Ellison was a “Creative Consultant” for Babylon 5 and Trekkies obviously know his mega-famous Trek episode, “City on the Edge of Forever.” And, JMS himself was also a big Trekkie. But we’ll get to that.

How Babylon 5 (maybe) made Trek writing better in the ‘90s

Okay. So, there’s no reason to believe that Deep Space Nine ripped-off Babylon 5 in the ‘90s, but that doesn’t mean Deep Space Nine and Voyager weren’t made better by the existence of some friendly competition. Documentaries like What We Left Behind make it clear that DS9 had its own agenda, separate and apart, from, well, pretty much anything. That said, DS9 didn’t start out as a serialized show. Those big story arcs came later. Babylon 5 on the other hand, did start out serialized, which when you consider that most seasons were 22 episodes long, that’s really saying something. DS9 always had ongoing storylines, but the heavy serialization — the types of back-to-back story arcs that happened during the Dominion War — happened years after the show got off the ground. Did Babylon 5 give the writers’ room of DS9 the confidence to go this route? Most would probably say no. And yet, B5’s serialization was its signature. With DS9, the serialization became its signature eventually. 

Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy, directed the most pivotal episode of Babylon 5, the 1996 season 3 finale, “Z’ ha’dum.” These days, this kind of thing happens all the time — Jonathan Frakes directs episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and The Orville in the same year. But back in 1996, this kind of thing was more shocking. It’s not provable, but with so many Star Trek people working on Babylon 5, it feels unlikely that the writers and producers never watched the show. Because if they had, it seems like they would have been fired-up. 

How Babylon 5 saved Star Trek’s special effects in the ‘90s

In the early 1990s, real sci-fi on TV didn’t use CGI. If you wanted to do spaceships, you used models. Even the sci-fi epic seaQuest DSV got away with heavy CGI use because, in essence, the ships were half-hidden underwater. But not Babylon 5. From 1994 onward, everything about the series was CGI. Initially, the VFX company that provided these effects was a company called Foundation Imaging. Because B5 had a budget of roughly a third of a Trek series of that era, CGI effects were the only way to survive. You might not think the CGI on B5 looks that realistic now, but you have to put it in context. Outside of maybe The Last Starfighter, nobody had really dared to do outer space ship VFX with anything other than models. B5 proved it could be done. The series also pioneered virtual sets, a practice that every single sci-fi show benefits from to this day.

But this isn’t an instance of Star Trek noticing someone doing CGI and thinking that it was a good idea. Foundation Imaging literally became a part of the Star Trek franchise in 1996. After 1995, Warner Bros decided to create the CGI for Babylon 5 in-house, which left Foundation Imaging in trouble. Luckily in 1996, the company started doing CGI for Star Trek: Voyager, which led to a longtime association with the Trek franchise. Up until 1996, for spaceship exteriors, Trek almost always used models. But that started to change after Foundation Imaging began working on Voyager. Though another VFX company — Digital Muse — did a bunch of DS9’s effects, Foundation Imaging was eventually needed on DS9 as well. Remember the greatest spaceship battle in all of DS9? Yep, that’s (mostly) Foundation Imaging.

In “Sacrifice of Angels,” the scope of the starship battle was too big for models to be used, and the workload too large for Digital Muse to handle alone. And so, Foundation was responsible for the epic moment in which the USS Defiant breaks through the Dominion lines. For most DS9 fans, this exact scene defines why the series is legit awesome. And, the truth is, if Babylon 5 hadn’t employed Foundation Imaging, if Babylon 5 hadn’t relied on CGI effects, the Defiant might not have flown like that. Everyone knows great VFX can’t save a bad sci-fi movie or TV series. But, in the late 90s, it was also true that bad VFX could prevent great sci-fi from being accepted. If Trek hadn’t slowly made the switch to CGI, it’s hard to believe Voyager would have continued to be exciting. Without Babylon 5 and Foundation, you can forget “Year of Hell.”

How Babylon 5’s creator predicted a Star Trek reboot

 In 2005, after the cancelation of Enterprise was announced, JMS and Bryce Zabel co-authored a treatment for a possible reboot of Star Trek. This outline wasn’t done because anyone asked them to. It was done out of love for Star Trek. The basic concept was, at the time, fairly radical — do an entire reboot of Star Trek, in fact, the pitch was called Star Trek: Re-Boot the Universe. The idea was to give a new origin story for Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the TOS crew. JMS used examples from his work in comic books: Fans can accept that this happens in a different universe. Sound familiar? 

By 2009, the entire trajectory of Star Trek was redefined by the first J.J. Abrams reboot movie, which, superficially, is what JMS and Zabel pitched. True, the current Star Trek renaissance has gone away from the reboot universe. But, the viability for big-budget, cinematic Star Trek probably couldn’t have happened without the reboots. Again, we can’t prove that the JMS/Zabel pitch inspired Paramount to do their own reboot, but just like there may have been some synergy between DS9 and B5, the basic pitch is just too similar to ignore. 

Conclusion

Babylon 5 was a not a Star Trek rip-off, but it did take place in the 23rd Century, and like the classic Trek, featured heroic human starship captains and their alien allies teaming-up to save the galaxy. In a sense, there was a retro-feeling to all of Babylon 5 that probably reminded ‘90s Trekkies more of TOS than of TNG or DS9. Throw Walter Koenig and Harlan Ellison into the mix, and B5 was like a tribute band for Star Trek: The Original Series. These days, fans of The Orville make similar comparisons between that series and the TNG heyday of the ‘90s. The difference, of course, is that B5 was created by J. Michael Straczynski, a guy who cut his teeth literally creating the scripts for your favorite ‘80s cartoons; from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to The Real Ghostbusters. In short, Straczynski was someone who understood what sci-fi TV was in the ‘90s, and he knew its limitations. When he set out to make B5 he clearly did it with a lot of love for Star Trek. JMS  hired Star Trek actors for Babylon 5. He attempted to bridge the divide between Trek fandoms and the B5 fandoms. He even dreamed up a way to bring Trek back from the dead after it was seemingly canceled in 2005. J. Michael Straczynski maybe never formally wrote for Star Trek, but without him, and without Babylon 5, the world of Trek would have been much, much darker.

The post How Babylon 5 Made Star Trek Better appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2CTVBvy

[tuttle-did-it]

I LOVE DS9. I LOVE it. I will always love it. And I love the writers for giving me such a beautiful and intricate show, I love Terry Farrell for fighting to make Jadzia so delightful and fun and queer. But...

(deep breath... incoming rant... sorry. Get a cup of tea and come back. ☕️)

You have to understand-- as a trans person growing up, the only time I had ever seen a positive example of a queer character on television was Bugs Bunny. Every other queer character-- most especially Transgender characters, were killers in crime shows, were dead bodies, were secrets a spouse kept from their partner, were immoral, horrible, mentally ill people. And on the rare occasion they weren't that, they were the butt of the joke because hahah crossdressing is so funny, amirite?

Jadzia Dax was the first person I saw on television who spoke about her past as a man, who spoke with flexibility regarding gender and identity. She was the closest thing I had to affirmation that I was not crazy, evil or a joke as a trans youth that was not allowed to be openly trans at that time. So DS9, for me, was mind-blowing-- all of her friends happily accepted when she would switch pronouns or -- christ-- SHE HAD A WIFE!!! It was possibly the only thing that gave me solace as a little baby trans in an anti-trans world. And everyone just accepted it as a normal, cool thing. It was something that made her better, not hated. It was an HONOUR on her homeworld to be the way she was, not an excuse to send someone to conversion therapy.

This beautiful, wonderful show meant the world to me-- that gave me hope as a little trans person who wasn't allowed to be trans in the world I lived in. And they buried their first queer character. And, to this day, I am not over it. I probably will never be over that.

DS9, you were this beautiful show that had women like Kira who were allowed to be emotional and angry and raw. I'd never seen that before. You had very neuro-diverse characters like Bashir, and everyone came to accept him, despite his quirks. You had what is a very clearly gay relationship between Garak and Bashir, and then Rick Berman, of course, destroyed that. You had a Black Captain who was a wonderful father, and who was allowed to be recognised, to experience how beautiful being Black was, and the traumas of those around you not accepting you for your skin colour. You had a man who loved his wife enough to let her go on her own adventures without holding her back. You had an aro/ace non-binary autistic person trying to deal with emotions and friendship and love for the first time. You had beautiful (trans)women like Jadzia Dax who was intelligent, accepting, fun, and wise. Oh, and communist propaganda. Which was amazing.

How could I not love all of that? How could I not be moved by all of that? How could my world not be completely changed by all of that?

And then it was all set on fire because of the ego of one man.

This beautiful show that built so much also built the shark tank. They put on the water skiis, and jumped the fucking shark for no damned reason, just because a tiny horrible man with a huge ego wanted to one-up a woman who was burnt out and needed a break, and-- more importantly, she dared to report that her boss RICK BERMAN was a misogynistic pig.

Rick Berman is the reason DS9 jumped the shark, and the reason I cannot watch past the episode 'The Sound Of Her Voice.'

FUCK YOU RICK BERMAN.

Terry Farrell was another ~difficult woman (link).~ All my life, I've heard people talk about ~difficult women~ women who are labelled ~difficult~ by men because the women are confidently asking for something they already deserve. Sometimes it's equal pay, sometimes it's a bit of time off, and sometimes it's just basic fucking respect.

Example: Gillian Anderson was ~difficult~ for complaining that they offered her HALF the money David Duchovny was offered to return to The X-Files. When they did the continuation, GILLIAN was the star power, not Duchovny. Gillian was the one with all the awards (Baftas, Emmys, SAG, multiple Critics Awards) and the starring role in several movies, plays and a LOT of great tv shows like The Fall and Hannibal. Duchovny had one crappy tv show Californication and bit roles-- he had NOTHING. But HE was offered twice as much. And Gillian was ~difficult~ for asking what she deserved.

Terry Farrell was NOT difficult. She didn't demand anything absurd. She WANTED to stay on DS9. She just wanted a little time off to deal with her burn out, and to not have to deal with the misogynistic dick that was Rick Berman all the time. That's it. That's really all she was asking for, as far as I can tell. But because of this, Terry was labelled ~difficult~.

I was in Hollywood at this time. I remember hearing the rumblings-- Terry was ~difficult~ so they fired her from DS9. Terry was ~difficult~ so they fired her from Becker. Terry was ~difficult~ and should leave Hollywood, the rumblings said. The rumblings lied. How dare a woman ask for recovery time? How dare a woman report her misogynistic boss?

DS9 suffered irrevocably after they killed Jadzia Dax. As far as I'm concerned, they broke the show completely, and never did recover. It never could recover. It was a terrible shark jump-- and the moment they killed her, it wasn't just her character that died, but my love for the show. And they were to blame. They did it to themselves, they did it to Terry, and they did it to us.

Terry Farrell is going to do a watch of DS9 with Armin Shimerman and the Delta Flyer boys. And I hope Terry does not hold back about the betrayal of them killing off Star Trek's first canon queer main character, the first positive image of a gender-queer character I had ever seen on television (besides Bugs Bunny) , and a powerful, intelligent, hilarious and FUN STEM woman who was a symbol to queer and trans children in that era. I want them both to spill everything about the behind the scenes happenings.

(And I hope Armin doesn't hold back about all the times he had to fight the production, like 'Profit and Lace'-- which he demanded to be rewritten because it was even MORE transphobic and queer-phobic than the version that aired.)

Can't wait. And I hope they embarrass the hell out of Rick Berman and everyone involved in destroying Jadzia Dax.

Jadzia Dax, I love you. And Terry Farrell, thank you for being everything I needed to see. Thank you for fighting to make Jadzia so wonderful. Terry, thank you for being a ~difficult woman~, and I love you for it.

Oh. One more thing.

FUCK YOU RICK BERMAN.

You ever think about how they could have had Jadzia Dax go on a long mission deep into space for some amazing research opportunity? Have an episode of her and Worf grappling with whether she should go or not because they had JUST got married?? They finally agree she should go and you have a whole other episode of everyone else giving her a great send off (including her and Worf racking up and impressive number of sex injuries) and she gets to go off on an amazing voyage and the following episodes can include bits and bobs of Worf dealing with missing his wife and being quietly adorable over her messages to him and they send each other increasingly hilarious klingon poetry over the remaining series and like maybe near the end Jadzia comes home and they rack up enough sex injuries Bashir considers moving into their living room to be on hand.

But nah, just kill her off I guess.

[mrspockomakeitso]

Star Trek asks 27: Who deserved better?

Oh god so many. so, so many. but for now ill say jadzia dax (and terry farrel, while we’re at it. and most actresses in star trek unfortunately).

*spoilers for ds9*. my girl did Not deserve to be taken out like that, so suddenly and without anyone even there and by fucking Dukat? and his freaky satanic red eyes? what the fuck?! 

[trillscienceofficer]

I haven't watched the DS9 documentary, only some parts, but why don't you like it?

Saying I don’t like it doesn’t quite cover my opinion of “What We Left Behind”. Per se, it’s not a badly made documentary, but here are the things that left a bad taste in my mouth or made me outright angry:

so. much. time. was spent on the hypotethical Season 8, and most of it ranged from ‘ok’ to ‘garbage’ (and I don’t have to tell you how bad killing off Nog looks now. it was a bad decision in general, but now it’s just. no. absolutely not). I’m not even going to break down why, I will just say that it made so incredibly obvious that the DS9 writing room was just a bunch of straight white dudes, and it’s basically a miracle that I like so much of the show. @pasty-latina said it best when she observed that Season 8 is a very very rough first draft, which needed a lot of rework. So I think this whole part of the doc should’ve been at least way way shorter than it is now.

the way they covered Terry Farrell’s exit from the show was… well I don’t know how to say this without using the word ‘cowards’. The circumstances have been known for a while (ie, Berman forced her to quit), and yet the documentary was weirdly reticent in talking about it, and implied that it was a ‘both sides’ kinda situation when we know it absolutely wasn’t. Berman abused his position as a producer of the show and Terry was a victim. By being so vague, the doc puts the blame partly on the victim, and that’s just outright shitty. I don’t care why they decided to paint the situation this way at this point: Terry Farrell deserved better, once again. And once again, she didn’t get the recognition she was owed. Fuck that.

the way they talked about Ezri, for the most part, was not only bad. It was fucking horrible. They mostly talked about her in relation to Julian (framing her more as a ‘prize’ for Julian to win than an actual character). They let Nicole DeBoer say very little about her role (I think the most significant observation about her presence was made by Rene Auberjonois). And one of the things they kept was probably the saddest sentence in all the doc, Nicole saying that she knew most fans wouldn’t accept Ezri (or her). Like, what the fuck. That was a completely unacceptable way to cover the impact of a main character, I don’t care that Ezri was there for only one season.

So you can see why, as a Dax fan, I’m kinda angry to have contributed a not insignificant sum of money to get… this. I am also very sorry it took me a few rewatches and a lot of discussion with other people to really grasp what was bothering me, because at first I was caught into the enthusiasm of seeing new content for a show I love. But now I can’t unsee all of this, and I’m not happy about the doc. There are things I like about it (and the remastered HD scenes were really good), but yeah. So much potential wasted, and twenty years later there’s still no one willing to stand up in any official way for Terry Farrell. It’s fucking disheartening.

[theweefreewomen]

💖 for DS9?

jadiza, who’s awesome, and terry farrell deserved better

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 28 October 2019

Quick Bits:

Afterlift #1 is a digital original from Chip Zdarsky, Jason Loo, Paris Alleyne, and Aditya Bidikar. Very interesting concept here playing with a character who drives for a Lyft analogue in Cabit, leading to becoming a rather unique courier.

| Published by Jams & Jellies

Batman Annual #4 actually gives us many adventures and stories as we go through almost two months’ of diary entries of Batman’s exploits from Alfred, as told by Tom King, Jorge Fornés, Mike Norton, Dave Stewart, and Clayton Cowles. It’s a nice way to pack a lot of story into this annual in a fairly unique way, while also showcasing just how busy Batman really is. 

| Published by DC Comics

Black Panther #17 sets up for the next confrontation with N’Jadaka and his forces, also giving us a rather...awkward but interesting conversation between Storm and Nakia. Gorgeous art from Daniel Acuña.

| Published by Marvel

Bloodshot #2 continues the balls to the wall action as Bloodshot and the Black Bar conflict escalates, from Tim Seeley, Brett Booth, Adelso Corona, Andrew Dalhouse, and Dave Sharpe. It’s a bit of a throwback to a more action-oriented style, but it definitely works for Bloodshot. A nice change of pace to give a variety of storytelling.

| Published by Valiant

Conan the Barbarian #10 spins us the twins’ yarn as they plotted their revenge on Conan, from Jason Aaron, Mahmud Asrar, Matthew Wilson, and Travis Lanham. The art from Asrar and Wilson is gorgeous. The backstory building up to last parts of this story and the fate of Conan is gripping.

| Published by Marvel

Contagion #5 brings an end to this series from Ed Brisson, Adam Gorham, Veronica Gandini, and Cory Petit. Gorgeous and creepy art here from Gorham and Gandini. 

| Published by Marvel

DCeased #6 is surprisingly hopefully, even as everything dies and everybody hurts. It appears to be setting up a sequel, though likely to be incredibly bleak. Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Neil Edwards, Stefano Gaudiano, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte conclude this series in epic fashion as we say goodbye to Earth.

| Published by DC Comics

Death’s Head #4 is another ending to a series this week, from Tini Howard, Kei Zama, Felipe Sobreiro, and Travis Lanham. Some very nice character work here for Death’s Head and Vee.

| Published by Marvel

Doctor Strange Annual #1 gives us a pair of tales. The lead from Tini Howard, Andy MacDonald, Tríona Farrell, and Cory Petit is a fun Halloween story dealing with the spirits haunting the Sanctum Sanctorum. Any art from MacDonald is a treat. The back up is a bit more deadly serious with Pornsak Pichetshote, Lalit Kumar Sharma, Sean Parsons, José Villarrubia, and Petit revealing a failsafe should Strange go rogue.

| Published by Marvel

Ether: The Disappearance of Violet Bell #2 continues to be incredibly inventive as Boone tries to track down the assassin. David Rubín’s art is absolutely amazing. And Boone’s continued inability to really think about anyone other than himself is telling.

| Published by Dark Horse

Excalibur #1 is another tick in the win column for “Dawn of X”. The X-Men dabbling in magic isn’t common, but Tini Howard, Marcus To, Erick Arciniega, and Cory Petit do so with amazing flair, fittingly taking us in through Otherworld, Captain Britain, and Betsy Braddock. Apocalypse’s new incarnation as  “ •|A| •” and his newfound interest in magic is fascinating.

| Published by Marvel

Five Years #5 spotlights Zoe’s rather elaborate imagination for coming up with ways to murder people. Granted, the Russian agent may well deserve it, but still... Terry Moore continues to deliver some unexpected twists as the end of the world inches closer.

| Published by Abstract Studio

Giant Days: As Time Goes By #1 is a one-shot finale special from John Allison, Max Sarin, Whitney Cogar, and Jim Campbell. It picks up roughly a year from the end of the series, dealing with why Esther has been missing from their reunions. It’s full of all of the humour that we’ve been used to and hammers home the power of friendship. Also, it gets very, very weird. 

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

Harleen #2 works hard to portray Harley’s seduction by the Joker. Stjepan Šejić and Gabriela Downie portray it as an insidious, manipulative thing. It might appear romantic on the surface, but there’s definitely a darkness there. There are ideas of bringing back a monster from the edge of insanity, but the story makes you realize that some may well be beyond hope.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Hellboy and the BPRD: Long Night at Goloski Station might well be the best of these new format tales yet, and both of the previous ones were incredibly strong. Here Mike Mignola, Matt Smith, Dave Stewart, and Clem Robins deliver a single issue story building on Hellboy’s confrontation with Baba Yaga, Sir Edward Grey, and demons. 

| Published by Dark Horse

Invisible Kingdom #6 begins the second arc, “Edge of Everything”, as the crew first try to find food and fuel and then run afoul of a salvage ship. G. Willow Wilson, Christian Ward, and Sal Cipriano keep things interesting as we start to see the crew’s life after Lux.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Invisible Woman #4 is disturbing, basically everything goes to hell and everyone that Sue was trusting to see this operation through has let her down. Or worse. Mark Waid, Mattia De Iulis, and Joe Caramagna set up a rather horrifying situation in this penultimate chapter. Again, De Iulis’ artwork is stunning. 

| Published by Marvel

Joker: Killer Smile #1 is essentially a psychological horror from Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Jordie Bellaire, and Steve Wands. It comes from the point of view of a psychiatrist, Dr. Ben Arnell, who is trying to get to the heart of Joker’s mental state. It’s not going so well and it appears like the good doctor is losing time, doing strange things, and possibly worse. Very intriguing beginning to this story.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Knights Temporal #4 has some stunning artwork from Fran Galán, particularly during the gangster sequences where colour comes into play as another important storytelling element. There are some very nice twists this issue, making you wonder about a lot of what we thought we knew.

| Published by AfterShock

The Last God #1 is dark fantasy done right by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Riccardo Federici, Sunny Gho, Dean White, Tom Napolitano, Steve Wands, and Jared Blando. It gives us lying kings, heroes who weren’t rightly heroes, and a Lovecraftian terror returned to show the truth. It plays deep on resentment and distrust, and of a complete failure of institutions to uphold a decent society. All with absolutely stunning artwork from Federici, Gho, and White. This is a beautiful, haunting work.

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label

Last Stop on the Red Line #4 is very, very weird. We get a peek behind the masks of the monsters and it’s even stranger. There’s a very interesting mix of symbolism and the supernatural where we’re really not sure where one begins and the other ends. This was a very unique series from Paul Maybury, Sam Lotfi, and Adam Pruett.

| Published by Dark Horse

Mall #3 goes even harder into inter-faction warfare as it seems like all of the groups are at one another’s throats. Great world-building here from Michael Moreci, Gary Dauberman, Zak Hartong, Addison Duke, and Jim Campbell, with some interesting plot developments.

| Published by Vault

Manor Black #4 concludes the series as we see what essentially amounts to order vs. chaos as the old blood takes on wild magic. This doesn’t feel so much as a conclusion as an end to a chapter of a wider arc, leaving much unresolved. Hopefully we see more. The artwork from Tyler Crook is phenomenal.

| Published by Dark Horse

Marvel Zombies: Resurrection #1 is really damn good. Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Leonard Kirk, Guru-eFX, and Travis Lanham kick off this series with a new angle on the Marvel Zombies, playing up more on the horror angle, with a truly terrifying spread of the disease through a new vector. Gorgeous artwork from Kirk and Guru-eFX.

| Published by Marvel

Monster Planet #1 is the kind of thing that you used to see regularly published by Image and Top Cow, the military action comic that throws in horror elements, from Joe Brusha, Marcelo Mueller, Maxflan Araujo, and Taylor Esposito. It’s not bad, setting up a world where humanity has been turned into dinosaur-like beasts and the remnants of society need to turn to classical monsters for help.

| Published by Zenescope

The Necromancer’s Map #3 takes a bit of a different approach, giving us a fair amount of action as Tristan’s Will catch up with Bethany and co. as well as some great character building in between the action. Great stuff from Andrea Fort, Michael Christopher Horn, Sam Beck, Ellie Wright, and AndWorld Design.

| Published by Vault

The Plot #2 is wonderful horror storytelling from Tim Daniel, Michael Moreci, Joshua Hixson, Jordan Boyd, and Jim Campbell. Very creepy build of supernatural events once Chase Blaine and his family arrive back at his ancestral home. Hixson and Boyd’s presentation of the black, gooey masses are also disturbing.

| Published by Vault

Queen of Bad Dreams #5 concludes this excellent series from Danny Lore, Jordi Pérez, Dearbhla Kelly, and AndWorld Design. Rather interesting confrontation with and revelations about Eleanor Chase here.

| Published by Vault

Red Goblin: Red Death #1 is a one-shot featuring three stories set during Norman Osborn’s tenure as the Red Goblin at the end of Dan Slott’s run on Amazing Spider-Man. It’s kind of weird that it doesn’t instead tie-in with current events in Absolute Carnage, but it’s not bad for what it is. The art of the first two stories from Pete Woods is great.

| Published by Marvel

Relics of Youth #2 is even better than the first issue, delving deeper into the mysterious tattoos that the kids have been branded with and their connection to the island that they’ve landed on within the Bermuda Triangle. Matt Nicholas, Chad Rebmann, Skylar Partridge, Vladimir Popov, and AndWorld Design are telling a very compelling adventure here.

| Published by Vault

Roku #1 begins another mini-series focusing on one of the luminary villains in the Valiant Universe, this one from Cullen Bunn, Ramón F. Bachs, Stéphane Paitreau, and Dave Sharpe. It’s full of action and intrigue as Roku is hired by an unknown client to retrieve...someone. Things get more interesting as a new face stands in her way and we find out the unusual nature of the target.

| Published by Valiant

The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer #1 is a homecoming of sorts for John Constantine, back to his old haunts alongside some of the other Vertigo corner of the DC Universe. Si Spurrier, Marcio Takara, Cris Peter, and Aditya Bidikar spin a yarn that reconstitutes John after a massive magic war led by an evil Tim Hunter. How exactly the pieces fit are anyone’s guess, but it’s a brilliant darker take resetting him here. 

| Published by DC Comics - Black Label / The Sandman Universe

Savage Avengers Annual #1, though largely a self-contained story, is still integral to Conan’s adventure through the Marvel universe and the overall narrative as he, Hellstorm, and Black Widow stumble across a human trafficking ring that bears the marks of Kulan Gath. Gerry Duggan, Ron Garney, Matt Milla, and Travis Lanham deliver a compelling story.

| Published by Marvel

SFSX #2 does further world and character building, showing us just how much has changed since the Party took over, and how utterly betrayed many of the people from the Dirty Mind felt of Avory abandoning them. Very interesting stuff from Tina Horn, Michael Dowling, Chris O’Halloran, and Steve Wands.

| Published by Image

Silver Surfer: Black #5 concludes what has been a very trippy series from Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, Dave Stewart, and Clayton Cowles. There are some very interesting revelations of the past here, and it really makes you wonder about the Surfer’s new incarnation.

| Published by Marvel

Star Pig #4 concludes the series, kind of, from Delilah S. Dawson, Francesco Gaston, Sebastian Cheng, and Shawn Lee. There’s some rather disturbing tentacles in this one.

| Published by IDW

Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle #5 brings an end to this round of the series. I think it’s a perfect approach for some all ages “ghost stories” within the Star Wars universe. Wonderful resolution for the framing story from Cavan Scott, Francesco Francavilla, and AndWorld Design.

| Published by IDW

Tales from the Dark Multiverse: The Death of Superman #1 is the second of these one-shots spotlighting DC events gone horribly wrong, this time giving us a much angrier Lois Lane’s grief at the loss of Superman to Doomsday. Jeff Loveness, Brad Walker, Drew Hennessy, Norm Rapmund, John Kalisz, and Clayton Cowles present her as vengeance against a world that didn’t deserve Superman’s grace, raising some of the questions that you’d often see in The Authority. Only, you know, kind of evil. It’s not bad, but definitely dark.

| Published by DC Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #99 is the extra-sized penultimate chapter of “City at War” as all of the pieces begin falling into place for the grand finale. The story here from Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, Dave Wachter, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee feels truly epic and that something huge may just happen next issue. As it is, there’s still a ton of action here, some interesting developments with the Rat King, more disappointment when it comes to Raph, and something new with the mutagenic bomb.

| Published by IDW

Test #5 is very strange. Christopher Sebela, Jen Hickman, Harry Saxon, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou end this story as Aleph and Laurel find one another and a new way is planted, but there’s still seeds of something going awry.

| Published by Vault

Venom #19 largely plays out the end bits for the Maker and Dylan’s portions of Absolute Carnage, with some very interesting revelations. It seems like even bigger seeds are being lain for future stories here. Great art from Iban Coello and Rain Beredo.

| Published by Marvel

Witchblade #16 gives us the fight between Alex and Haley, after a few distractions and discursions. The stakes are pretty high here and there are a few rather tense moments as it plays out. Beautiful art from Roberta Ingranata and Bryan Valenza.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Wonder Woman Annual #3 is largely a flashback tale, set five years ago as Wonder Woman and ARGUS attempt to extract an agent sent to infiltrate Gorilla City to see the legitimacy of Grodd’s rule. What Steve Orlando, V. Ken Marion, Sandu Florea, Hi-Fi, and Pat Brosseau do with is establish a new backstory and interpretation for a very old Wonder Woman foe in a fairly interesting way that even ties in to Event Leviathan. It may strain a bit of credibility for the villainous turn, but that will largely depend on the follow-up.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Archie 1955 #2, A Basketful of Heads #1, Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1, Chrononauts: Futureshock #1-4, Dead Man Logan #12, Fantastic Four: Grand Design #1, Fight Club 3 #10, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #13, Ironheart #11, James Bond 007 #12, Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance #2, Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Alliance #4, Jughead’s Time Police #5, Kick-Ass #18, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #44, Rick & Morty #55, The Ride: Burning Desire #5, Runaways #26, Star Trek: Year Five #7, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Annual #3, Star Wars Adventures #27, Superior Spider-Man #2, Tremor Dose, Warlord of Mars Attacks #5

Recommended Collections: Amazing Spider-Man: Red Goblin, Amber Blake - Volume 1, Black Science - Volume 9: No Authority But Yourself, Deadpool - Volume 3: Weasel Goes to Hell, Dept H. Omnibus - Volume 3: Decompressed & Lifeboat, Dick Tracy Forever, Hit-Girl - Volume 5, Jimmy’s Bastards - Volume 1: Year One, Lucifer Omnibus - Volume 1, Marvel Action: Spider-Man - Book 2: Spider-Chase, Punk Mambo, Spider-Gwen: Gwen Stacy, Star Trek: The Q Conflict, Symbiote Spider-Man, Thor - Volume 3: Wars End, Tony Stark: Iron Man - Volume 3: War of the Realms, Vamps: The Complete Collection, War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men, The Wild Storm - Volume 4

d. emerson eddy feels like stale, day old pepperoni pizza.

[douxreviews]

Quantum Leap - Season Four Review

Since season three was mostly leaps of the week, they made an attempt to shake things up with season four by playing with the formula a bit.

But as always, Quantum Leap is at its best when it does arc episodes about Sam and Al, as they again did in the premiere and the finale. There were a few other strong episodes as well.

4.1 "The Leap Back" (June 15, 1945)": In the fourth season premiere, Sam got to play a brand new character: Dr. Sam Beckett. For the past three seasons, we've been leaping with a Sam who had partial amnesia and was completely disconnected from his real life. Here, he was finally dynamic, brilliant scientist Sam, and surprisingly, married Sam.

Mimi Kuzyk did a terrific job as Sam's wife Donna, another brilliant scientist who kept her existence a secret from leaping Sam because she knew that it would make it harder for him to complete his missions. That was darned selfless of her, and that made her feel worthy of him in short order, since our Sam is quite a guy. I also thought Donna waiting for Sam gave us an obvious parallel to Beth, who waited years for prisoner of war Al to come back from Vietnam.

We finally got a lengthy visit to the actual Quantum Leap Project, with interior decoration that made it look as if Al's handlink exploded. We finally met Gooshie, Dr. Beeks and Ziggy, who changed gender in this episode. As Sam became reacquainted with his life and his wife, he and Al reversed roles and Al got to be the leaper who had to fix what once went wrong (and in Al's lifetime, 1945), while Sam's glee as he got to be the hologram was adorably funny. "Revenge is mine. Thus sayeth the hologram!"

Of course, Sam had to re-leap to save Al, so the status quo was too quickly re-attained. Honestly, I would have loved seeing Sam at home and observing and Al leaping for a few episodes.

4.6 "Raped (June 20, 1980)": You'd think an episode about a man occupying the body of a young woman who'd been raped would be uncomfortable, awkward, preachy, and/or cliched — but no. Instead, it was one of the best episodes of the series, because they did it right.

Sam leaped in because Katie, the victim, was having difficulty testifying against her attacker. Scott Bakula's performance as Sam in Katie's body was terrific; calm and matter of fact, Sam fought on Katie's behalf, refusing to accept the way the townspeople and police kept blaming the victim.

Although I always dislike the way trials on television seem to happen instantly after a crime, the strongest scene was Sam testifying on the stand by simply repeating Katie's own words, as Al held her hand. Even though the reason Al did that was so that Sam could see her, it was also a physical way of showing Al and Sam showing their support of Katie. Excellent episode.

4.7 "The Wrong Stuff (January 24, 1961)": Quantum Leap took on animal experimentation as Sam leaped into a test chimp, and they did a good job acknowledging all aspects of a difficult topic. This is the only episode in which Sam leaps into a non-human. I really liked the little nod to Planet of the Apes when Sam tried to write a note.

4.22 "A Leap for Lisa (June 25, 1957)": The lesson of "A Leap for Lisa" is that whenever they go back to the well and do an episode about Al's past, it's a winner. I'd mostly forgotten this one and it was such a pleasant surprise, the best episode in the season, with the possible exception of "Raped."

Sam leaped into 23-year-old Al and it appeared that he was supposed to save Al's married girlfriend Lisa from dying in a car crash, but Al was so bemused by encountering his younger self in the waiting room that he arrived late, in time to watch Lisa die. Sam's interference changed history so that Al would be convicted of the murder of his commander's wife, Marci, and at one point, when probability went up to 100% that Al would die in the gas chamber, the hologram of Al vanished and was replaced by another observer named St. John (Roddy McDowall, and I loved that they brought in an A-list actor to play the part). When Sam solved the murder, young Al had to leap into his earlier self in order to save himself, Lisa and Marci.

It was so much fun to see Al talking to "Bingo," his younger self, in the waiting room. It was also fascinating that Sam initially leaped into Al in the middle of a From Here to Eternity erotic dream on the beach, too. Has Sam ever leaped into someone dreaming before? Did that happen because his mind is linked to Al's?

What's also fun is how this episode inadvertently relates to Star Trek. Charles Rocket's character was called "Commander Riker," a character on Star Trek: The Next Generation; Terry Farrell, who played Lisa, would join the cast of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine the following year (1993), and of course, Scott Bakula went on to star in Star Trek: Enterprise in 2001.

Honorable mention

4.11 "The Play's the Thing (September 9, 1969)": A nice episode about ageism. I liked how Sam saw nothing wrong with being a younger man in love with an older woman, and how he immediately and passionately defended Jane's choices and helped her achieve her dreams. Anna Gunn from Breaking Bad had a nice supporting role as Jane's daughter in law.

4.15 "A Song for the Soul (April 7, 1963)": Scott Bakula in an African American girl group, as he backed up the daughter of a preacher who wanted to break into the big time. (The daughter, not the preacher.) This one was sweet. Plus I think it was the first time Sam leaped into a black woman. I particularly liked the sedate gray outfit Al wore in church. (Well, "sedate" for Al.)

4.16 "Ghost Ship (August 13, 1956)": Despite an occasional uncomfortable resemblance to Airplane!, this was a good one about a plane stuck in the Bermuda Triangle. It also featured a very young Carla Gugino.

4.19 "Moments to Live (May 4, 1985)": Sam leaped into a star of daytime drama, and Kathleen Wilhoite and Pruitt Taylor Vince kidnapped him for embarrassing reasons. Well written with good acting, and I'm glad that they (mostly) didn't play kidnapping and mental illness for laughs.

What didn't work

There were a few episodes that I thought were poor, and a couple that made me outright uncomfortable. Starting with...

4.12 "Running for Honor (June 11, 1964)": Al as a homophobe? Yes, I get that even somewhat recently, a majority of people were against gays in the military, but I'd like to think that anyone who dressed the way Al did would be a bit more open-minded. At least Sam was understandably disgusted by his attitude and what happened in the episode changed Al's mind, and I doubt anyone would do an episode like this today. We've come a long way in 25 years.

4.13 "Temptation Eyes (February 1, 1985)": Another attempt to do something new, although I don't think it worked. Tamlyn Tomita played a genuine psychic who fell in love with the real Sam, he fell for her, and they actually got to spend a few weeks together. But the acting and writing were poor and cliched, making it more of a miss than a hit. And that's too bad, because I'd always thought it would be nice if Sam got a vacation in the middle of all that leaping.

4.14 "The Last Gunfighter (November 28, 1957)": My word, this one was terrible. It was like they wanted to do an old west shoot-out but couldn't, so they did it anyway. What town in 1957, even one with a corrupt sheriff, would allow two old men to have a gunfight in the center of town? Innocent bystanders, anyone?

4.18 "It's a Wonderful Leap (May 10, 1958)": Another unsuccessful attempt at something new, this time with Liz Torres from Gilmore Girls as a genuine guardian angel. What bothered me more than I can say was Al doing fat jokes along with even worse Latino jokes. Liz Torres deserved better than this.

4.20 "The Curse of Ptah-Hotep (March 2, 1957)": Intended to be a rip-off of King Tut's tomb and Howard Carter with mysterious deaths, but with the budget of a one-hour TV show, anyone with any knowledge whatsoever of archaeology would find this episode painfully bad. I mean, the mummy comes to life and everything. And John Kapelos, who is usually pretty good, played an Egyptian archaeologist (the John Rhys-Davies role in Indiana Jones) with an accent that sounded like a cross between Russian and Spanish. I haven't finished rewatching the series yet, but this might be my least favorite Quantum Leap episode ever. Certainly my least favorite in season four.

Bits and pieces:

-- Notable actors (other than the ones already mentioned): Neal McDonough, James Morrison, Glenn Morshower, Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the age of ten, Harry Groener, Eriq LaSalle, Bob Saget and Amy Yasbeck.

-- Famous people: There was a little boy named Donald Trump in a New York City cab with his father in "It's a Wonderful Leap." I saw it coming and said out loud, "No, no, please don't."

-- As usual, there were a number of homages to movies, including The Rainmaker, The Defiant Ones, the Indiana Jones movies, and A Few Good Men.

To conclude

Although there were still many strong episodes in season four, I think seasons two and three were a bit stronger. Am I wrong?

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

[sirellas]

ok i'm upgrading it to a felony that she wasn't in the gayest mirror universe episode ever (which is saying something!) where worf begs to get pegged and ezri gets to kiss kira

literally a crime that jadzia isn't in the baseball episode. she would have dominated. she would have demanded everybody's BEST. she would have been right there with benjamin in his feud with solok, cheering their drama on. she would have developed ferengi- and miles o'brien-specific gentle insults to motivate them. she and leeta would be the best players on the team! we missed out on jadzia connecting baseball and klingon battle rituals!! we missed out on jadzia getting more into the solok rivalry than benjamin!!! we missed out-- *sobs*

[sshbpodcast]

Bottom Five Star Trek DS9 Episodes

by Ames

We’ve taken our last trip through the wormhole and said goodbye to all the weirdos who live in there and occasionally fail to understand baseball (boy, have we been there, wormhole aliens!). While we’re sad to leave the station for good, there are definitely some elements from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that we won’t miss.

We hosts of A Star to Steer Her By have wrapped up the whole series and can attest to having compiled the worst episodes between both the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. You can listen to our DS9 finale here (series discussion starts at 1:58:12 after the season chatter) with some extra commentary by guest star Liz, exclusive to the podcast episode. Spin the Dabo Wheel and see if we’ve landed on the same bottom five episodes you did by reading on below.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

“Field of Fire”: Jake Another Trill episode, another full retcon of Trill culture, how symbionts work, and the Dax symbiont’s personalities in particular. This convoluted episode manages to also drag Vulcans down with it in this messy Silence of the Lambs gone stupid.

“His Way”: Ames So I timed out the musical numbers in this trainwreck of an episode. There are over 10 minutes of song, which is simultaneously more and less than expected somehow. Couple that with all the toxic masculinity and general grossness, and you’ll skip ahead to singing “Here’s to the Losers” too.

“Extreme Measures”: Caitlin Not to get ahead of ourselves here, but while we didn’t like “Distant Voices” as you’ll see (spoilers!), we did that episode already. So why are we doing something that bad again? Furthermore! Was it Sloan or Julian who got  more character-assassinated in this episode, cuz it’s pretty close?

“Meridian”: Caitlin Boys boys boys! It took us a long time to come to like Jadzia because of the many episodes in which she is mainly seen through the eyes of men, and this one takes the cake. The leads didn’t have any chemistry with each other, so all there is to say about this whole idea is “Briga-don’t.”

“Crossfire”: Caitlin Speaking of relationships we weren’t into from the very start: Shakaar and Kira. It all starts in “Crossfire” when he gets reduced from powerful leader of Bajor to hormonal adolescent who doesn’t know how to handle himself around his crush and we lose basically all respect for the guy.

“Let He Who Is Without Sin”: Jake Want more misguided relationship drama? Worf decides that instead of letting Jadzia enjoy her own agency in their relationship, he’d rather be an ecoterrorist for their vacation. My, how the mighty Klingon has fallen.

“Tears of the Prophets”: Chris The treatment of women on the show over the years has frequently been appalling, but none is worse than that of the actresses themselves, as we can see in how the producers basically chased Terry Farrell away. And this episode hurts us in particular in how they do the same to her character. RIP Jadzia.

“If Wishes Were Horses”: Ames Now we get to the really asinine stuff. Let’s start off with an episode so ridiculous and absurd that it changes its mind halfway through regarding what the hell is happening and no one notices because it’s entirely unfollowable to begin with!

“Rivals”: Chris, Jake More asinine stuff. This time with a perplexing randomness device that’s only random in the sense that it’d have to be through utter chance for someone to actually enjoy this chaotic mess of an episode. We’ve rolled the dice and the results are clear: this one loses.

“Fascination”: Ames, Chris You’d think Gene was still alive for us to see this lust-filled nonsense that prioritizes sexiness over, say, having any idea what it’s actually doing. Come on, we know Lwaxana is a character capable of so much more than this, but she had to be reduced to a horny old cougar?

“Distant Voices”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake You don’t see us all agree on much, so clearly this episode is a bunch of gibbering trash. Not only is the “everyone on the show represents a facet of something-or-other so we don’t have to hire more actors” device even older than Bashir, but so are the surreal coma dream and the aimless brain quest.

“Profit and Lace”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake The worst of the absolute worst (and what might be the worst of all of Star Trek) comes in this deplorable, misogynistic, offensive pile of pre-replicated food. What’s even more insulting is that the team thought a bunch of rape jokes and punching down at women would be comic gold. Moogie deserved better.

—

See also: our Top Five Star Trek DS9 Episodes list! We promise they’re way better! Like lightyears better.

Vic has sung his last encore (finally!) and that’s a wrap for Deep Space Nine, but there’s plenty more Star Trek to watch through. Make sure you keep your eyes here, listen to new episodes every Thursday on SoundCloud, follow A Star to Steer Her By on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to tip your Dabo Girl!

[ltbroccoli-archive]

ST ask meme - ALL OF THEM

Star Trek ask meme

Under a read more, because long.

1. Top 3 favorite female characters? Kathryn Janeway, Seven of Nine, Uhura.

2. Top 3 favorite male characters? Reg Barclay, Rom, Data.

3. Top 3 least favorite characters? Katherine Pulaski, Wesley Crusher, Jadzia Dax. (I said Travis Mayweather on my other post but he’s honestly tied with Jadzia.)

4. Favorite alien species? I really enjoy the Borg. Voyager ruined them just the tiniest bit though, by overusing them.

5. Episode plot you wish they had handled differently? Several are coming to mind, but I think I’m actually gonna go with the Enterprise finale. Which I don’t remember terribly well but I remember that it sucked. Riker and Troi? Seriously? The least that show could have done was end on a reasonably high note. Granted it was never a great show in the first place…

6. Character you feel a show could have done without? Pulaski was so utterly unnecessary, and just horrible. I realize they wanted Gates McFadden gone, which was also a mistake. Just let her stay through the whole thing.

7. Who would make up your crew dream team? Captain Janeway, First Officer Spock, Chief Engineer Reg Barclay, Doctor EMH, Tactical Officer Worf, the rest can just fight for it idk.

8. Which captain would you most want to serve under? It’s a toss up between Picard and Janeway… I think Janeway wins by the tiniest bit. Picard would also be awesome.

9. Which episode plot do you prefer?

     a. Time traveling to the past or dealing with time travelers from the future? The past. I love time travel everything give me all the time travel please.

     b. Going undercover to spy on enemies or going undercover to explore pre-warp planets? Probably the enemies, but it really depends on the episode.

    c. Holodeck malfunction or space anomaly? Depends what the holodeck malfunction is and what the space anomaly is. Holodeck malfunctions are always stupid, but we need to know if it’s the good kind of stupid.

    d. Ship being taken over or being stranded on a planet? Taken over.

    e. Rapid aging or de-aging? De-aging. “Rascals” is a gift.

    f. Diplomatic negotiations or all out battle? Both? Both is good. (Negotiate to stop the battle.)

10. Which alien pet would you most want for your own? The unicorn dog.

11. Top 3 OTPs? Janeway/Chakotay, Doctor/Seven, Rom/Leeta

12. Top 3 NOTPs? Chakotay/Seven (seriously wtf), Dukat/Winn, Garak/Ziyal

13. A ship you wish had been canon and why? Garak and Bashir. They had great chemistry from their very first scene and it’s just such an interesting pair.

14. A ship you wish hadn’t been canon and why? Garak/Ziyal. She’s barely legal. They were only doing it so the Garak/Bashir shippers had no chance. It didn’t make sense. It was forced.

15. Top 3 favorite alien crewmembers? Spock, Worf, Seven of Nine.

16. If you could steal the basic plot of an episode for one show and apply to another which would you choose? Well Enterprise directly stole plots from other shows multiple times… honestly I can’t think of any.

17. What role would you have aboard a starship? Science officer…? Engineer? One of those.

18. If you had to fight a character who would you choose? Pulaski.

19. You can undo one plot point, which do you choose? Dukat joining the Pah-Wraiths. That’s the exact moment his arc went from absolutely incredible to just… a piece of shit.

20. Which piece of technology do you wish existed in reality? Transporter.

21. What kind of stories do you hope the new show does? Explore current issues. Make important points about our current world. Make people uncomfortable. Make people examine themselves and how they behave.

22. Would you rather serve on a starship or a space station? Space station, probably.

23. Favorite tropes? The non-human character trying to figure out what the hell humans are even doing.

24. Which character do you relate to the most? Reg Barclay.

25. Favorite villain(s)? Dukat, the Borg, the Dominion.

26. Which alien hybrid offspring are you most interested in seeing? Uh… this is really not something I thought about before. Maybe a Bolian and a Klingon. See how that one works out. (Yeah I just kinda picked two random races…)

27. What do you wish they had handled differently? A lot of Reg’s later TNG episodes treated him as comic relief. I would have liked to see more of him in a serious light and less comedic. And also directly acknowledging that he has anxiety of some kind, whatever that might be, would be great.

28. Character(s) you want to cosplay as? I really don’t do much cosplay, I’d be happy just to have a StarFleet uniform.

29. Favorite and least favorite episodes? I’ll just go one from each show, this is hard. These might not be the absolutes but they’re what popped into my head first.

Favorites - “The City on the Edge of Forever”, “Realm of Fear”, “Far Beyond the Stars”, “Bride of Chaotica!”, sorry I can’t consider any ENT episode to be a favorite.

Least favorites - “The Mark of Gideon”, “Sub Rosa”, “The Muse”, “Year of Hell”, “These Are the Voyages…”

30. Something you wish you could delete from canon? That ghost trying to bang Crusher? Yeah I completely skipped that episode on my rewatch, no thank you.

31. A crossover with another show/movie/book/ect, that you’d want to see? Doctor Who, Stargate, or Firefly.

32. F/M/K. I dunno. Someone give me three choices and I’ll answer this.

33. Whose twitter feed would you most want to follow? Data’s would be a blast, I think.

34. What do you think *insert character*’s tumblr would be full of? Someone has to send a character. Since I write Reg, I will say that Reg’s Tumblr would be cats, advice for dealing with anxiety, cool space pictures, cats, engineering facts, and cats.

35. A minor character you wish had become a main character? Reg Barclay. I always want more Reg Barclay.

36. A social issue you hope the new show tackles and how? Actual gay people would be nice.

37. Character A and Character B get into a fight, who wins? I need characters.

38. *Insert crew here* is thrown back in time to *insert time period here*, how do they handle it, which fashion trends do they pick up, who threatens the timeline the most, who is saddest when they have to leave, who is most knowledgeable, who stands out the most, ect? Again, I need things. Also this would take forever to answer, so…

39. You have to relocate to a planet other than Earth, which do you choose? …Vulcan? Andoria? Some Earth colony? Yeah probably an Earth colony, if there’s a nice big one.

40. If you got a trek inspired tattoo what would it be? I don’t think I’d get a tattoo… but I mean, if I were forced to get one at gunpoint for some reason, maybe the IDIC medallion on my ankle or something simple like that.

41. Which episode(s) creeped out/scared you the most? “Night Terrors”, the TNG episode where the crew can’t dream. When Crusher’s in the morgue and all the corpses are suddenly sitting up? I lost it the first time I saw that as a kid. Still creeps me the fuck out.

42. Which episode(s) made you cry? “Real Life”, the VOY episode with the Doctor’s holographic family that you never see again. I don’t know why that one got to me but it got to me.

43. Order of shows from most to least favorite? Deep Space 9, Next Generation, Voyager, Original Series, Enterprise, Animated. Honestly DS9, TNG, VOY, and TOS are all at about the same level for me, I love them all but in different ways. ENT is a noticeable step down in quality and TAS is uh… yeah.

44. If *insert crew* ended up in the modern day what would amaze them the most? Gotta give me a crew.

45. Which alien culture would you most want to live in/would feel most comfortable? Denobulans would be super friendly, I feel like.

46. If they rebooted *insert show here* who out of modern day actors would you pick to play the main characters? No more reboots.

47. An unpopular opinion you have? Jadzia Dax is the worst character on DS9. She’s an annoying know-it-all who can apparently do no wrong. She also has no character development to speak of and her episodes were always the most boring, despite the Trill being a fascinating race. Worf deserved better. Also, Terry Farrell never seemed the right choice for the part. I was glad to see her go and I genuinely don’t understand why this fandom worships the ground she walks on.

48. Sort the crew of *insert show here* into Hogwarts houses. Someone want to send a show?

49. A favorite ST fic? I don’t read much fanfic, actually. I did read one where Q was trying to help Reg get over his stage fright. That was pretty funny. I can’t remember where it was or I’d link to it.

50. A random headcanon? At some point after the episode “Hollow Pursuits”, Reg Barclay gave Deanna Troi a damn good (and completely genuine) apology for recreating her on the holodeck for make out sessions.

[trillscienceofficer]

okay but what if Michael interacts with Dax telepathically in the pools and in her mind the figure Dax uses to represent itself in order to be able to 'speak' to Michael is its past host Jadzia :O :O :O I was just thinking about how it's such a shame Jadzia was killed off when so many characters are coming back in Picard and then this occurred to me and there's a 0.001% chance of it happening but now I really want it to!

I would be lying if I said that I haven’t thought about this… Earlier this year, when Discovery finally brought back Hugh Culber, I wrote something like ‘now if only Discovery could bring back ALL the queer character Star Trek wrongfully killed off…’  When I learned that Season 3 would bring Michael Burnham on the Trill homeworld, the scenario you outlined was one of the first things I thought about! Jadzia’s death is still such an ugly part of the Star Trek franchise, and not even “What We Left Behind” cleared the air about it (if anything it muddied the waters further, and Terry Farrell deserves better than that). And let’s be real, Michael Burnham and Jadzia Dax talking to each other on screen would be nothing short of a dream come true for me, they’re my favorite characters! You’re right that it would be a fantastic way to show that Jadzia lives on, no matter what happened to her and why.

I also think it’s very unlikely that Dax will make an appearance of any kind on Discovery, and it would be unfair of me to pretend otherwise: the show has been judged harshly for leaning too much onto pre-existing characters like Spock, Pike and Sarek, and a Dax cameo would further this pattern. Plus it’s not like it’s the Discovery writers’ responsibility to correct the mistakes of a 25-year-old production. A reference to Dax is the most I feel I can expect from the next season of Discovery, and mostly I just hope that what the writers came up with for the Trill will be interesting. I’m very intrigued about this yet unnamed character who is probably going to be the bridge between the Discovery crew and the Trill symbionts.

Still, I can definitely keep dreaming during the long hiatus until season 3!