#ds9 genetic enhancements

[trashmammal-7]

Amsha and Richard Bashir piss me off so bad. "Oh but Jules you were just so small and dumb as a first grader so of course the next logical step was to have you illegally genetically enhanced. You don't have children so you just wouldn't understand Jules. It was truly the only thing we could do." Throw yourselves off a cliff.

[walkingstackofbooks]

I just want someone to ask Julian if it hurt, when he was enhanced.

You know, just for one of his friends to have really think about what having such drastic bodily changes might include, and what having the procedure done in a place without Federation medical standards might mean...

(Perhaps Keiko or Miles have a moment when they've taken Molly to the infirmary and Julian is reassuring her that it will only hurt a little bit--

Or Odo had been wanting to discuss Dr Mora with someone who might understand a little of what he went through, and ends up noticing that Julian seems to be relating to his past far more than he expected--

Or Ezri overhears some remark Julian makes to Sarina about how he goes his infirmary feels far safer than the ones their parents had left them in--

Or Garak realises why he doesn't feel like deriding the book that Julian has chosen this week, despite the fact that the plot of Matilda is absurdly ridiculous--)

...And maybe Julian would reply that no, it didn't hurt. There's no canonical evidence, as far as I'm aware, and his parents did find a 'decent doctor', after all.

But I think he'd get a funny, unfocused look in his eyes for a few moments, before saying, "No-one's ever asked me that before."

"And? Did it?" they might ask softly, a little unsure if they actually want to hear the answer.

And Julian would frown: appearing puzzled, though, rather than troubled.

"Of course," he'd reply. "I'd thought that was obvious."

[incorrectgarashir]

Garak: Okay, but what if we went to lunch, but not as friends this time? Julian: AS ENEMIES?! Garak:

[youngpettyqueen]

GENETICALLY ENHANCED???? DNA RE-SEQUENCING?????

[deeplovelydark]

obv it's not the idea of incest that excited him (maybe a bit.) but his fixation on being special heroic outstanding etc and the other side of that coin is feeling like or being viewed as a freak and an aberration

sorry but bashir was really excited by the prospect of fucking his great-grandmother and becoming his own ancestor. he was all fired up defending his theory

[klaipeda-witness]

Baselessly speculating about the implications of Lower Decks S5E9 Fissure Quest (spoilers obvsly)

Hearing Garak and Bashir's voices again saying new lines gave me a hit of serotonin that I'm gonna be surfing on for weeks. Alexander Siddig and Andrew Robinson both extremely still have the juice.

Garak hiding in the conduit in the wall is a callback to him having to go into the wall in the internment camp in By Inferno's Light, no? Crying screaming throwing up etc

Hologram Bashir a) exists and b) has a mobile emitter, meaning that he's from a universe where Bashir's secret was never exposed (or one where they have a more welcoming attitude towards the genetically enhanced?) but where Bashir was otherwise exactly the same, and either ended up as the medical hologram on Voyager or I guess they managed to make copies of the mobile emitter after Voyager got back to earth? (I actually haven't finished all of Voyager yet sorry :') )

How the fuck did Garak end up as a Star Fleet doctor. The things he says indicate that DS9 is otherwise the same, how did that even happen lol. How do you pick up surgery as an exiled spy and then get inducted into Star Fleet. And you might say hey, maybe he joined Star Fleet after he ended up in the multiverse, but the Harry Kims are all dressed like they were the day they got gabonked onto the ship! I think he came there dressed like that!! I love it though

And was he therefore a Star Fleet doctor on DS9??? Unfortunate place to station the federation's only cardassian doctor lol. And was Bashir still the CMO?? Is Bashir dead in Dr Garak's universe and so when the Bashir medical hologram showed up in the multiverse, Garak had a second chance to be with the person that he is cosmically tied to across all universes? And the hologram Bashir presumably didn't know who Garak was when they first met!!! Could someone please write a fic of that where Garak realises he gets the second chance he never thought was possible?

Actually, here's my theory as to how alt Garak could end up in Star Fleet: He asked Worf to sponsor his application to Star Fleet to fuck with him like he does in In Purgatory's Shadow but their universe's Worf was like "Okay"

Dr Garak is also a sweetie, I liked it when he was like "these Harry Kims are stronger than they look! He'll be fine". Sweetie behaviour.

"You do know I would follow you to any reality" I don't think I will ever recover

They kissed on the mouth for real

I love engineer Mariner, I hope she comes back for the finale.

Curzon!!!!! Curzon was there and he was a klingon weaboo!!!! That's how you know he was the real deal

There was the correct amount of Harry Kims on that ship. He's just a little guy

Garak seems like he would be good at racketball doesn't he. I think so at least

Such a good LD episode, can they please uncancel the show, my god. We need like 3 more seasons.

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 4, Wave 2, Poll 2

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and round here.

Julian Bashir-Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Qualifications:

Disability: Along with being generally awkward with conversation and not knowing how to talk to people, a part of his backstory is that he was “underperforming” in school so his parents got him illegally genetically enhanced to “fix” him (in the show this is treated as a horrible fucked-up thing that they did LGBTQ+: He has a relationship with another male character on the show that everybody behind-the-scenes (except the homophobic producer) treated as canonically romantic. The homophobic producer had to tell the writers to stop putting Bashir and Garak in scenes together because they got along too well and he didn’t want the audience to think they were a couple. The non-homophobic producer said in a documentary looking back on DS9 that one of his biggest regrets about the show is not making the relationship actually canon.

He was canonically intellectually disabled as a child, which his parents attempted to "correct" with illegal gene editing. This eliminated his intellectual disability, but he displays many many autistic traits still (socially awkward, infodumps, hyperempathetic, echolalia, blunt). This lends itself to the popular interpretation that the gene editing couldn't "correct" his autism, but it did change exactly which autistic traits he had. One of his closest onscreen relationships is with Elim Garak, a relationship that both actors have since said is romantic in nature, and Andy Robinson (Garak's actor) has explicitly said he played Garak as being attracted to Bashir. There is also some possible evidence of Julian being trans; in one episode, he says this of a situation in which he had to transfer a fetus from one of his friends into another due to an emergency (paraphrased): "The fetus was in distress, and the only available candidates were Major Kira... and me." This line potentially implies he is capable of carrying a fetus. Furthermore, he canonically has a name that his parents used to call him that he refuses to answer to now (Jules). In-universe, this is due to him finding out about his genetic engineering, but it is very transgender of him.

Propaganda:

- He uses all of his free time to role play historical events with his best friend - He intentionally got one question wrong on his finals so that he wouldn’t be valedictorian - On like 5 separate occasions he gets invited to medical conferences then kidnapped on the way - Season 2 episode 22 “The Wire”

He is so awesome. Very autistic, very interesting character. He's an extremely caring doctor, to the point he once stayed on a plague-ridden planet with no futuristic tech, mixing medicine by hand for weeks in an attempt to cure the populace. Which he succeeds at, by the way!! He also, after finding a rogue group of former enemy soldiers who have managed to kick their dependence on the drug used by the enemy government to control them, Julian agrees to try to formulate a way for all of the soldiers to be free of their dependence. He only fails due to interference. Also, when Garak is suffering withdrawal from a brain implant, he stays by his bedside for days on end, caring for him, and even going to the heart of hostile territory to ask the head of the Space KGB how he can cure him. And that's not all! In addition to being a very dedicated (if often unethical) doctor, he is also a space tennis player! He has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth immediately upon meeting anyone new, and not just because of his canonical foot fetish! I'm not joking about that. It is canon.

The qualifications and propaganda paragraphs correspond, @convenient-plot-device is the second submitter.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus-The Locked Tomb

Qualifications:

She's a lesbian and the author Tamsyn Muir has confirmed she's written as schizophrenic, based on her own experience.

Okay SO Harrow is a necromancer nun who is also a huge lesbian. She spends the books of TLT series being super gay and repressed about her emotions for 1. Butch lesbian Jesus and 2. Human Barbie the death of God. She narrates the second book (Harrow the Ninth) and is author-confirmed schizophrenic. She experiences hallucinations thru the whole book and has since childhood. She’s also WIDELY headcannoned as autistic by the fandom (me too) because. Because she IS SO FUCKING AUTISTIC (source: I am autistic too)

Schizophrenic lesbian with a traumatic brain injury

Schizophrenic and sapphic

canonically a schizophrenic lesbian. neither word is used in series, she isn't in a position to get a diagnosis and queer identities are so normalised in the universe that labels just don't get mentioned, but she is written as both by an author who is also both.

Canon schizophrenia

Canon lesbian with canon schizophrenia

She's a schizophrenic lesbian with a traumatic brain injury

Propaganda:

The Locked Tomb is pretty popular on tumblr but I might as well submit her anyway

She’s a lesbian necromancer nun. She’s a saint and also woke up the death of God, who is a human Barbie, who she is in love with, tho she’s also kind of married to lesbian Jesus. She’s schizophrenic. She’s scrungly. She puts bread in a drawer. She’s even autistic

Harrow first started hallucinating (visual and auditory) when she was ten years old! The traumatic brain injury and seizures are much more recent. Unironically gotta love a pov protagonist who makes you struggle along with her in sorting out hallucination and false memory to figure out what's going on. Also while Harrow's disability shapes the narrative, the book isn't at all about her being disabled. It's a fantasy/scifi gothic horror novel about being trapped at a work retreat with God.

so many women want her but she’s determined to be in love with the soul of the dead earth trapped in a 10ft barbie doll instead. she’s a lesbian disaster and is trying to deal with both schizophrenia and over 200 actual ghosts haunting her.

a schizophrenic lesbian, written by a schizophrenic lesbian! she's in love with multiple dead women, but she's also a necromancer so that's not as big of an obstacle as it sounds. weird little bone-obsessed necromancer lesbian. I care about her deeply

Author Tamsyn Muir has discussed how Harrow's schizophrenia is modeled after her own experiences. It matters a lot in her eponymous novel, where her inability to trust what she sees and hears is compounded by her self-inflicted lobotomy to save her girlfriend's soul from getting absorbed into her own.

Harrow is one of the protagonists of her series & both her lesbianism & her schizophrenia play major parts in the story. The author has spoken about how she wrote Harrow based on her own experiences, and the authenticity comes through strongly. Beyond that, she's a teenage gothic nun in love with a holy corpse & she's the greatest bone magician ever born. What more needs be said.

She's a lesbian, she's psychotic, she has seizures, she faints regularly and can't rely on her own memory worth shit. And the only reason she's not going to kill god is so she and her girl can escape the cycle of violence. Basically, Harrowhark Nonagesimus is the entire package.

Anything Else?:

Listen. Listen. I’m not doing Harrow justice here. I LOVE her (Submitter 2)

The author is also schizophrenic! Which is pretty cool. (Submitter 3)

The author of the series is openly schizophrenic, and has mentioned in interviews that she's drawing on that experience when writing Harrow :) (Submitter 8)

[beauxjangles]

i just love the fact that when julian's genetic enhancements finally came to light, the ds9 crew didn't even stop for a second to question whether or not he should be there. they know that his place is on the station with them and his enhancements don't change a single thing about how they view him

[drmajalis]

No one:

Absolutely no one:

Me: Dr. Julian Bashir on star trek ds9 still has his childhood teddy bear, Kukalaka. He was his "first patient" after his leg was accidentally torn off. His mother wanted to throw him out, but Julian restuffed and stitched the bear back together, and would continue to do so for his entire life.

Julian is also genetically enhanced individual, an "augment" with genetically enhanced strength, intelligence, precision, everything. By his own admission he was developmentally disabled, and his parents gave him the illegal gene therapy begets they wanted what was best for him, but in Julian's mind, they "replaced" their defective son with a more perfect one, saying "Jules" the nickname they gave him, died on the operating table.

Maybe the reason Julian was so fixated on keeping Kukalaka is because he didn't want anyone to think they were replacable because of a defect or injury, that he saw a little of himself in this stuffed toy and thought "I won't give up on you," just like how he wouldn't give up on treating The Quickening, or the Jem'Hadar's addiction.

[tuttle-did-it]

*Sorry Nicole de Boer, nothing personal, but it’s true

[timaeuslover001]

what DS9 should ave done with "Section 31"

Have them be a splinter cell organization coming OUT of the Federationn/Satrfleet like (like in Kids Next Door lol ) completely unbeknownst to most of the duration and starlet.

They able to round up other augmented beings and even made some of their own.

Federation catches wind of it.

Federation lets a few admirals and Captain know about it and Sisko was able to capture eon and he died before any further investigation but exposing one made them aware about Bashir genetic enhancements. (which he doesn't care about in my AU, but his parents do get banned from federation space because of it because its a serious crime to the Federation )

Federation then plans to use Bashir to infiltrate sector 31.

THAT is what they SHOULD have done!

This is born from my other AU about Starfleet that I WISH was canon, was that about stand the fact their supposed to be a BETTER version of the military (I know their not a military , but Gene based them off his experience in the military so yea with it ) in the future where they don't have these secret operations or secret missions or sectors and al info is open access to all Starfleet organizations as well as Federation leadership. (like the CIA or whatever equivalent )

[walkingstackofbooks]

Just realised how relieved Julian must have been that Lwxana got distracted by Odo in The Forsaken.

Like, having to spend a significant amount of time in the company of a very powerful Betazoid must have been a nightmare for him, in terms of having to keep absolute control over his thoughts so his secret didn't get out, right?

What's the likelihood that if Lwxana had got trapped with the rest of them, and he was having to weigh up all the options of how to get them safe (and if he can risk using his enhancements to do so..), that control would have lapsed and she'd have realised what he was.

Julian's very subdued at the end of the episode, amidst all their praise of him - is he aware of just how close he might have come to losing it all?

[jossujb]

Now that I rewatching DS9, how hard do you think Garak nutted himself after learning that Bashir was genetically enhanced?

Like, alright, they've had intellectually stimulating arguments over delightful lunches, just like I imagine Cardassian feelgood romance fiction go. But then it turns out this young and beatiful little baby human fucking floored you by lying so big to your face and was able to keep it from you, even though your one speciality in life is dig out things people don't want to say.

That went from cute little dating to starcrossed lovers of epic literature. Do you think Garak was thinking to himself something like how did my life became a Cardassian lover's dream? My twink is a fucking snake (pun intended)

[azazelsazaleas]

I finished watching through DS9 a few weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to do a rundown of my thoughts on it. Here goes:

- Oh my god that was fantastic. I really wish it’s given it a fair shake back when it was on the air; I was a dumb teenager who resented it for not being TNG and was going through a weird self-loathing phase where I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was the massive nerd that I am. This seriously lived up to the hype. I may have to do a TNG rewatch because this might just have upstaged it as my favorite 90s Trek.

- Andrew Robinson should’ve been made a full cast member. Ditto Max Grodenchik and Aaron Eisenberg.

- Damar’s transmission at the end of The Changing Face of Evil lives rent-free in my head. I cheered out loud at that.

- One thing the show did fantastically that a lot of other SF/fantasy properties don’t quite get right is that it lands a pitch-perfect balance of “these characters are major, important figures in the larger multinational conflict” and “this conflict is absolutely massive and not everything revolves around the same small group of people.” The fact that Sisko, Worf, Kira, Odo, et al are so important is entirely plausible and it never feels like the writers are trying to gratuitously bring everything back to them.

- That said, I kind of love that Admiral Ross’s leadership approach during the Dominion War eventually consists of doing whatever the hell Sisko tells him to do.

- God, the acting was incredible. Andrew Robinson, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Marc Alaimo, and Louise Fletcher were real standouts, but everyone was just so damned good.

- Actually, I really need to give special mention to Shimerman. The man went above and beyond to make Quark be something more than a joke character, despite how obvious it was that basically the entire production team wanted him to just be cartoonish comic relief. He worked harder to flesh out his character and show his race as a race of *people* (not just caricatures) than just about any actor playing an alien on Star Trek before him except for maybe Nimoy. Give the man a goddamn Emmy. Don’t believe me? Go rewatch the iconic root beer scene from The Way of the Warrior.

That said: I do have a few criticisms:

- Pretty much all of the (canon) romantic subplots were just…yikes. The only major exception I can think of Sisko/Yates, where they actually seemed to have a healthy dynamic, fall legitimately in love with each other, and generally treat each other like adults in a serious relationship, not bickering teenagers.

- Seriously, Worf/Jadzia got so hard to watch and then the fallout with Ezri was just ugggghhhhhhhhh stop please for the love of god

- Why did the writers need to try to romantically pair off all the female characters? Just, why?

- Kira had more sexual tension with that Romulan lady in half an episode than she did with any of her bucket-of-paint boyfriends over the course of seven years.

- I totally get the behind-the-seasons reasons why things panned out the way they did, but (hot take) I think Dax’s whole arc would’ve worked better if they had killed Jadzia off after the first season or two and brought in Ezri earlier. Jadzia was fun, but she was just too perfect to get many interesting stories and her relationship with Worf felt too much like manufactured drama. Having a trill who didn’t want to be joined, agreed to in a life or death emergency situation, and now has to reckon not only with taking on this symbiotic relationship with no preparation whatsoever but also succeeding this beloved person in the eyes of her loved ones is such a better setup for a character and it’s a pity we didn’t get to see that play out properly.

- Sisko deserved a better conclusion to his story. Give the man his damned house on Bajor and let him raise his kid with Kasidy. He’s more than earned it.

- Next time I rewatch the series, I’m skipping the mirror universe episodes and the ones with the genetically enhanced walking-90s-neurodivergent-stereotypes.

Other random thoughts:

- Dukat’s storyline should’ve ended with him getting killed at the end of Waltz. Either by Sisko, or by deluding himself so thoroughly that he does something suicidal. The pah-wraiths subplot felt like a lazy afterthought (except for the episode where he pretends to be Bajoran and starts fucking Kai Winn) and as much as I liked watching Marc Alaimo act, his story arc was basically over at the end of Sacrifice of Angels….which, incidentally is when Damar actually starts to get interesting.

- I loved the O’Brien must suffer episodes but I thought Hard Time was kind of overrated. Mostly for the plot line with the cellmate; I think I’m a little burned out on seeing stories that have a moral of “deep inside us is a line between humanity and savagery and when pushed to the limit, even the best of us would turn to murder.” It’s been done to death, and it’s really not truthful, at least for many people.

- I think I may have a little bit of a crush on Major Kira. It would never work out if I met someone like that in real life, though. I’m a laid-back, atheist, creative type; she’s a deeply devout former insurgent. Given certain real-life crushes I’ve had recently; maybe I’m just into strong women with big, expressive eyes who wear their hearts on their sleeve and have a spine made of fuckin’ steel. I have no idea what this says about me.

- MORN

- Favorite Episodes: In the Pale Moonlight, The Visitor, Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast, In Purgatory’s Shadow/By Inferno’s Light, In the Cards, Duet, The Wire, Civil Defense, The Magnificent Ferengi, basically the entire Dominion War arc.

[per1w1nkl3]

Hollow Pursuits (tng 3x21) is an example of a weird thing that I think star trek does way more often that it should. if star trek as a franchise is usually about inclusion and understanding and peace and live laugh love with every alien species there's almost a double standard with situations that are much closer to a plausible real life conflict (undoubtedly because of the personal bias of the writers)

this contrast felt especially stark to me with two episodes like tin man and hollow pursuits. on one side you have an alien dude who feels so much beacuse of a condition he was born with that his life is heavily impacted, an android who feels but in a different, subtle way and who sees his right to even exist questioned on a regular basis, and a being who looks like a rock or starship but is a living being and is also lonely and suicidal. first and third guy end up riding into the sunset together btw. all of them are supposed to be sympathetic even if slightly annoying (betazoid man).

but when the dude who has interpersonal relationship issues and major anxiety/generalized anxiety/social anxiety is human and a regular crewmember they somehow just kinda drop the ball. so as the episode opens we're presented with this guy that everyone hates because hes always late, he stutters, hes anxious and hes overall not pleasent to be around (do they even mention how he performs work wise? can he fix your random routine techonbabble issue?). they make fun of him, they call him a mean nickname behind his back- everyone, including his superior officers, including the captain. I dont think hes *supposed* to be the bad guy but I don't think he comes out as sympathetic either (or at least it doesn't translate as sympathetic in 2024) because we find out he uses the holodeck in a unethical way (at best) by using the faces of his coworkers. but this is never really the conflict! the real problem everyone seems to have with him is hes awkward and doesn't really fit in. somehow a crew of highly skilled high ranking officers who often come into contact with alien life forms turns into teenagers when the guy of the week has anxiety!

but the guy of the week who has anxiety does things that he should be reprimanded for (see fucking holograms with the faces of your coworkers) but they don't focus on that instead they are needlessly mean to him and the episode just comes out.... muddy?? in a way it's kinda like how tos can have a fucked up solidified lava mop looking alien who's killed people but it's sympathetic because the people have been killing her tiny fucked up mop children, but when it's autistc coded teenage boy charlie x it's like,,, well yeah,,, he's never lived in a human society before and he doesn't know the rules and he's pretty much lost and at the same time eager to make new experiences but also,,,, he could be a little less of an asshole yk??

in ds9 the episodes that I think have similar vibes are melora (ofc the disabled person is immediately distrusting look at how bashir treats her!!) and I can't think of the name but the one (or two I think???) with the genetically enhanced people. there's so much wrong with those i wouldn't even know where to start (not mention bashir's own parents who are supposed to get a redemption arc because suddenly they're sorry???? anyway I might be getting a little off topic)

so yeah idk if this makes a whole lot of sense but ugh it feels really grating and disheartening for a show that's supposed to be about a utopian future, where mankind is past the need for violence (but where apparently microagressions are completely fine)

[fast-moon]

DS9 Season 7 Thoughts

Final season! Last time, Dukat absorbed a wraith and used it to kill Dax and destroy the wormhole in one shot. Then Sisko was so ashamed of himself that he just took off and went home. So let's see if he can defeat the Dominion with his dad's secret gumbo recipe.

1. Image in the Sand: I can accept the death of Dax and her getting replaced, but I can NOT accept the death of Kira's pixie cut and it being replaced with whatever this Karen-ass bob cut is. Anyway, Sisko had a vision about digging up his mom and got stabbed by some Bajoran cultist, but Kiraaaaa, your haaaiiiir, whhyyyyy?

2. Shadows and Symbols: Ezri is adorable and I already like her better than Jadzia. Not too thrilled about the reveal that Sisko was The Special all along and that his entire existence had been predestined by the Prophets, though. At least Odo and Kira's relationship is going the way I'd hoped it would: exactly as it was when they were war-forged besties, just with more cuddles.

3. Afterimage: Ezri deals with the audience reactions to her replacing Jadzia. While I like everything about Ezri conceptually, from her imposter syndrome to being a counselor to being an unwilling host, her meekness in this episode left a lot to be desired, and I hope that she gets over it, because it's hard to take her seriously as a legitimate therapist otherwise.

4. Take Me Out to the Holosuite: It's a shame that the production schedules of modern shows are so tight that none of them can afford to have an episode where they just go, "screw the plot this week, LET'S PLAY BASEBALL!" anymore.

5. Chrysalis: Bashir cures one of the genetically enhanced patients of her catatonia, then immediately falls in love with her as his ideal partner. Forgetting the fact that she only has a few days' worth of life experience so far and hasn't even figured herself out yet.

6. Treachery, Faith, and the Great River: Someone looked at the word cloud for this episode and thought, "Yeah, that'll be the title". Odo gets himself his very own personal Weyoun to take home with him, but his warranty expires before he can get there.

7. Once More Unto the Breach: Worf lets a senile old grandpa come along on a mission so he can pretend he's still fighting the Nazis, so no one is really bothered when he goes on a suicide mission to go out in a blaze of glory.

8. The Siege of AR-558: The crew gets a taste of front-line trench warfare and discover war kinda sucks.

9. Covenant: Dukat starts a cult, and Kira is weirded out that the ultra-religious would eagerly stand behind a man who openly raped, oppressed, and murdered them, by making excuses for all of it. So am I, Kira, so am I. The most unbelievable thing about this episode is that they actually turned on him when he was unmasked rather than just making more excuses.

10. It's Only a Paper Moon: An episode from 1998 still manages to depict depressed and traumatized people dissociating from real life and taking full-time refuge in the internet or video games.

11. Prodigal Daughter: Ezri continues the tradition of Dax-centric episodes focusing on things in the periphery of her life rather than Dax herself. At least this one was about her current incarnation's family rather than cleaning up another mess left behind by a previous one.

12. The Emperor's New Cloak: Since it's the last season, the writers decided they'd better save time by mashing the Ferengi episode together with the Mirror Universe episode to also shoehorn in mirror counterparts of all the new characters that have been introduced since the last one.

13. Field of Fire: You know how when someone shows a picture of their family, it means they're going to die later? Well, there's a serial killer on the loose rigidly enforcing that trope, so Dax enlists the help of her own serial killer past life in order to racially profile who might be doing it.

14. Chimera: Odo finds another wayward Changeling who criticizes him for his reluctance to be openly goo, then gets arrested under the Goo Panic Defense. Also, glad to finally see Kira taking some agency in the relationship, since up until now it had still seemed a bit uncomfortably one-sided. #JusticeForOdoFinally

15. Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang: Sisko's Eleven (well, eight).

16. Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges: Oh, sure, setting up a Romulan senator and attempting to have them assassinated in order to guarantee the Romulans keep fighting the Dominion is bad when Section 31 does it.

17. Penumbra: Ezri goes out to find Worf to pick up where he and Jadzia left off with their petty bickering. Meanwhile, Sisko decides he wants to take a crack at marriage to see if his relationship with Kasidy would turn out any better, but the Prophets say "nah".

18. Til Death Do Us Part: We're not done yet with the series suddenly speedrunning its crackships, so now we've got (*shakes Boggle cube*) Winn and Dukat. They deserve each other.

19. Strange Bedfellows: Winn reveals that she was only in the religion business for the power and would choose power over principles, so that tracks. Meanwhile the Dominion has decided to cross over to Star Wars and bring in the Ubese as allies, much to Damar's chagrin.

20. The Changing Face of Evil: The Defiant takes the place of Worf and is easily destroyed to show how strong the Breen are. Meanwhile, Damar says "screw this noise" and turns the Cardassians against the Dominion.

21. When it Rains...: There is no HIPAA in the future as Bashir informs Odo he has an incurable disease over a video call with other people present. Kira cosplays Ensign Ro.

22. Tacking Into the Wind: Gowron succumbs to Immediate Death by Small Abdominal Stab Wound, all hail Martok. Meanwhile Kira continues to be the best kind of support for Odo while also keeping the Cardassians in line and I am here for it.

23. Extreme Measures: Bashir and O'Brien confess their feelings for each other while spelunking in a dying man's brain.

24. The Dogs of War: All right, in the home stretch, better hammer out those extraneous plot threads. Odo, you're cured. Bashir and Ezri, go kiss. Damar, do your revolution. Rom, you're the Nagus now. Sisko, you're gonna be a dad. All good? Okay, let's go beat the Dominion.

25-26. What You Leave Behind: Odo boops the Founder and she's no longer evil. Everyone celebrates until Sisko realizes that he still hasn't done the one task the Prophets literally created and manipulated his entire life in order for him to do, so runs off to have a Force battle with Dukat and then jump off a cliff with him. The End.

Hooray, finished! All in all, I found it to be quite a good and engaging series, with a lot of very topical themes even 30 years later (Garak voice: Especially 30 years later). I also think I wouldn't have appreciated it as much if I watched it as a teenager when it first aired as I did watching it as an adult, so in a way, I'm glad I waited this long.

Really, the main thing that prompted me to do it was all the Bell Riots memes I started seeing in September and I wanted to better understand them, haha. Also there were quite a few other memes that I've seen in my days that I didn't realize were from here that I know understand ("Especially the lies", "Attention Bajoran workers", "It's a faaaake", etc).

Was also pleasantly surprised at how gay the series was for the 90's. You've got Space Trans Dax, Disaster Bisexual Bashir, Genderfluid Odo, Makes ME Question My Asexuality Kira, just... everything Garak, and a mirror universe where everyone will fuck everyone.

I thought the ending was just kind of okay. I felt like the war wrapped up just a little to easily with Odo simply curing the Founder and her immediately having a change of heart. That and the whole thing with the wraiths felt tacked on in order to give Dukat and Winn something to do, and shoehorn in a way for Sisko to experience the "sorrow" the Prophets warned him about, since it ultimately didn't accomplish anything beyond manufacturing a bittersweet ending for Sisko.

Also, if Odo's goal is to teach his people to trust Solids, segregating himself away from the very Solids he's trying to teach them to trust seems counterproductive to those goals. Also not sure why he feels he needs to stay there forever when it literally took him 5 seconds of contact with the Founder to change her mind. Guess he was just emulating those trashy romance novels he reads by needing a bittersweet tragic ending.

Speaking of Changelings, did we just... kind of stop worrying about them taking the place of other characters a few seasons ago? I guess with the introduction of the Section 31 virus, they assumed that they'd be outed at some point, but no one else would have known about that.

I liked the Odo/Kira relationship as BFFs so was worried when the series was looking like it wanted to romantically pair them, but thankfully they handled it mostly okay. My main concern was that basically every other romantic relationship in the series devolved into petty bickering and poor communication, and the reason I liked Odo/Kira was because of how much they respected each other. Hell, Quark even lampshaded this in one episode where he pointed out Sisko and Kasidy bickering and telling Odo, "that could be you and Kira one day". That and also the woman in the relationship tended to stop having her own plotlines and just existed there to support the man, and I did NOT want that to happen to Kira. Thankfully, aside from one stupid manufactured argument, Odo and Kira maintained an immensely satisfying level of respect for each other, and Kira still got to run off and do revolution.

The same can't be said for Ezri. Oh, Ezri. I wanted to like you, and I did at first, since you actually came in with some compelling characteristics like being a therapist and not being a willing Dax host. But then that was basically shoved aside to make you nothing more than the romantic target of half the crew for the remainder of the season, which was a shame.

As for where to go now... not sure. I'm not too eager to start Voyager (which I also skipped in its initial run), since I know the Maquis factor heavily into the plot and crew, and that was one of the conflicts in DS9 that I had zero investment in, and none of the characters except Seven of Nine intrigued me in the few episodes I saw. And as much as I liked Scott Bakula in Quantum Leap, I couldn't get into the couple of episodes of Enterprise I saw because he just feels too soft-spoken to be a convincing captain.

Maybe I'll check out Picard since I heard it at least ended well despite some fuckery in the middle. I also see Strange New Worlds rated fairly highly, but I know absolutely nothing about that series. YouTube keeps pushing Lower Decks clips on me, but I'm not sure I want to go with straight-up satire, especially if I need to be familiar with all the references.