#in conclusion: sisko best captain

[isagrimorie]

The SNW cliffhanger in s2 is interesting because the longer it is, the more there’s some big expectations on my part regarding Pike.

The unfortunate thing with the showrunners invoking Hegemony as Best of Both Worlds level… which is ambitious of them but also IMO, a bit unfair to do. BoBW was very specific in context and there was a reason why it was, for the fans of that time, very momentous (as someone who didn’t grow up with BoBW, it unfortunately lived up to the hype. I found the 2 part cliffhangers on Voyager were constructed better).

Evoking BOBW is unfortunately putting Hegemony in a box.

Also, in terms of actions, I feel the decision to linger on Pike’s indecision was not helpful to the character.

I have written a defense of Pike as a Peace time Captain pushed into a War time decision making but the more time passes, the more I’m left turning the moment in my head again and again.

I suspect the writers for s2 will find a way for Pike to get back stronger after his moment of indecision. As I’ve mentioned, he is not a war time Captain.

Unfortunately, since that time I’ve been mainlining Voyager and DS9 and it’s difficult not to hold up Pike to the measure of Sisko and Janeway.

But I am also consciously making myself acknowledge that Pike did not have the history Sisko and Janeway have — Wolf 359 for Sisko, and for Janeway the Cardassian border conflict, that depending on the beta canon, was either limited to the siege ground war on top of being captured and tortured.

Pike seems to have emerged from a golden age (ish) of the early days of Federation.

I don’t recall Pike being this indecisive in Discovery s2 (I’m doing a rewatch of Disco, so I’ll see how that holds up) but there seems to be more emphasis on SNW that Pike has never really seen war service because he was deliberately kept away from it.

Which, I think is both savvy of Starfleet but also gives an impression that they’re handling Pike with kid gloves. Since they seem committed to this path for Pike, if they’re honestly going to engage with this part of Pike.

They started in Quality of Mercy invoking the events from Balance of Terror. (I wish they hadn’t done this but they did… it isn’t my favorite of the season 1 episodes. Structurally and filmmaking wise, despite all advancements I preferred BoT. SNW is a lot better when it's doing something original and not pulling from the TOS-era directly).

TLDR, I’m really curious how they will handle the last conclusion of the Hegemony 2-parter and how they will write Pike because I’m sure the writers will want Pike to run out the gate swinging and in command.

On rewatch though, you know who comported themselves very well under pressure and combat in Hegemony? Commander Una Chin-Riley. If there’s comparisons to be made about BoBW, it’s that both First Officers —Will Riker and Una Chin-Riley— acted very well and very decisively.

[vulcanssaygayrights]

[POINTS AT YOU] ur thoughts on sisko my liege

[bows] why, certainly, my liege!

...alright so this template doesn't have the right squares to adequately sum up the way i actually feel about sisko. but i did the best with the squares i was provided, because there was no option for "wow. good dad :')" and i am nothing if not adaptable. i think there's a lot of nuance and complexity to sisko's character, but he doesn't get enough attention from the fanbase sometimes. like a lot of characters, he kind of gets drowned out by ship content, which is a shame, because sisko is SO interesting. i marked off that he works better as part of a dynamic because that dynamic is him at the head of his crew; i think my favorite sisko moments are when he's just having fun with his crew, doing stuff like cooking or playing baseball, because it takes this character we know as a strong leader and really humanizes him. but also he's just??? such a cool captain??? probably my favorite, in fact??? as you can see i'm very incoherent about him, but i think he's very neat. and yes, i want him to be my dad. don't we all.

[ask me for my character opinions!]

[cazort]

So my fiance and I had recently finished watching Star Trek: Voyager (after completing watching TNG, DS9, Enterprise, and TOS, in that order) and we decided to give Star Trek: Discovery a try.

Two episodes in, we both agree that, so far, it’s trash, and we don’t want to watch any further. I don’t think it even really qualifies as Star Trek.

Am I being unfair or wrongly jumping to conclusions? Here’s what I dislike about it:

The writing of the dialogue feels unnatural, with the exception of the character Saru who I liked. The dialogue between Captain Georgiou and Michael Burnham feels particularly unnatural. The show also seems to omit a lot of “normal” dialogue, only showing isolated bits of dialogue focused around action/plot scenes, which seems really acharacteristic of Star Trek and also makes it hard for me to get to know the characters as normal people.

There are very few regular characters introduced. Whereas nearly all prior Star Treks introduce most of the main crew in the first episode, at least in passing, Discovery goes two episodes in and really focuses only on a small handful of characters (Burnham, Georgiou, Sarek, Saru, T'Kuvma, Vok) and kills off two of those characters in the second episode. I’m not against characters dying in the opening episode: DS9 shows Jennifer Sisko’s death and how it affects Commander Cisko, and Voyager’s opening episode features the death of many characters, but it didn’t pour energy into developing them only to kill them off.

The cinematography is low-quality and trite, which seems absolutely inexcusable given the modern tools available nowadays, I would expect it to be better, not worse, than prior shows. It is WAAAY too dark, even to the point of being completely unrealistic (why is a Federation court of law so dark at the end of episode 2? why is the ship’s bridge so dark? It’s darker even than Ops on DS9 and that was designed by Cardassians, which live in a lower-light environment. It doesn’t make sense) and to the point of making the episode hard to watch because I can’t see what is going on, even turning the brightness up fully on my monitor. Overall the cinematography looks like that of a bad action movie, or at best, some of the worst episodes of Enterprise’s season 3, not like most Star Trek.

There is too much angst and graphic violence and the overall vibe is too negative, and negative issues are not resolved. Both of us said we felt bad, emotionally, after watching each episode. This is very different from the sort of thought-provoking-but comforting effect that nearly all other Star Treks have. Other Star Treks did not shy away from tough subjects: war, genocide, torture even, but they framed it within a bright, optimistic view of the future in which there were mentally-healthy, mature characters who set a good example even when placed in tough situations. That’s the whole point of Star Trek.

So for people who have watched more of this, is my analysis spot-on? Does it get better after these episodes or does it stay this way? Is it really trash the way we think it is?

TBH the vibe I got from watching the first two episodes is that I felt frustrated at all the money and resources and time put into creating something that seemed to be damaging the franchise by taking something negative and angsty like any bad Hollywood action movie, and calling it “Star Trek”. I found it offensive. But I don’t know if I’ve judged it too early.

I didn’t initially like Voyager when I started watching it, but I ended up watching the whole thing and loving it, especially when I rewatched some episodes. And TNG’s first two seasons were pretty rough, and it has a few abysmal episodes in those seasons, but I still consider it one of the best series of all times, in part because from season 3 onward, they figured it out.

[witchyfoxelf]

[tv review] ds9 2x05 "cardassians" (1993)

garak’s back!! yay!!

even if season 2 weren’t otherwise the beginning of a steady improvement for the show (as often happens in golden age trek), it would be an improvement if only because we actually get multiple garak episodes this season. he’s just truly one of the best things about this show.

i also love the retcon that he & bashir have apparently been having lunch together every day since their first meeting. gayyyyyyyy. and, y’know, i’m me so i love garak’s overall aura of threatening homosexuality so fucking much.

assigning keiko & miles o’brien to look after the cardassian boy is a wild choice. like, keiko by herself would clearly be great (though preparing a cardassian dish for a boy who clearly hates being a cardassian & considers himself a bajoran is an odd choice), but miles? like, “hey, we need a neutral party to take temporary custody of you, so we picked our best racist! we really think you two will get along.”

also, like, sisko & co. just summarily assuming custody of the boy is just a weird overreach for the typically cautious sisko? idk man, i don’t get how any of this is the federation’s business.

there’s a fun running gag where dr. bashir keeps interrupting commander sisko’s conversations with gul dukat with some dramatic information he’s gotten from garak, culminating in him proving conclusively at the trial that gul dukat masterminded the boy’s becoming a “war orphan” in the first place.

there’s some structural problems with the episode, not the least of which is the fact that the ending is hella rushed with sisko’s ruling on custody coming in a captain’s log basically right after that bashir scene. but like, again i still don’t really know why any of this was sisko’s decision in the first place? it just really feels like there was a lot of connective tissue missing here. basically the only reason i’m giving it a high grade is that garak was fucking wonderful as always. the scene where bashir is startled awake to find garak just looming over him was priceless.

a-rank

[thegreaterlink]

Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S4E1 "The Best of Both Worlds - Part 2"

PREVIOUSLY ON STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION...

...Just read my last review. Or watch the episode for yourself.

And now, the thrilling conclusion!

WHAT'S IN STORE IN SEASON 4?

...A few of the producers left…

…Jeri Taylor joined as a supervising producer and part of the writing crew… she co-created Voyager a few years later… I guess that’s kind of important…

Okay, how about I finally review this fucker?

MY REVIEW

"Mr Worf... fire."

The energy beam fires… and has no effect.

Four months of waiting well spent.

It turns out that assimilating Picard into Locutus added his knowledge and experience to the Borg's hive mind, so they know every possible move the crew is about to make. With the crippled Enterprise no longer posing a threat, the Borg continue on their course to Earth.

Admiral Hanson tries to reassure them that there's no way Picard is helping the Borg - despite significant evidence to the contrary - and gives Riker a field promotion to captain.

One of this episode's biggest strengths is its tension, since at the time audiences had no guarantee that Picard was going to make it out of this. It seemed entirely possible that Riker was going to take over as captain, with Shelby as his first officer.

Obviously said tension is now practically nonexistent with the knowledge that Picard went on to appear in four more seasons, four movies, an episode of Deep Space Nine and a three-season spinoff series with his name on it, but I digress.

Nevertheless, morale is running low throughout the entire ship, with the crew scrambling to repair the ship and find new means to combat the Borg and Riker feeling immense pressure to perform in a position he was unprepared for. Sensing that the crew is overwhelmed, Guinan comes to visit him, in an interesting parallel of the scene from part 1.

Guinan: When a man is convinced he's going to die tomorrow, he'll probably find a way to make it happen. The only one who can turn this around is you.

Riker: I'll do the best I can.

Guinan: You're going to have to do something you don't want to do. You have to let go of Picard.

To clarify, she means that they can't let the loss and influence of the captain hang over them, and that Riker has to let him go and be his own captain if he has any hope of defeating Locutus.

Before Riker can give it any more thought, the Enterprise arrives at the battle coordinates at Wolf 359.

Somewhere out there, Benjamin Sisko is incredibly pissed off at how his character arc has started.

More than forty ships, thousands of Starfleet personnel, destroyed in a matter of minutes by a single Borg cube. It gets even worse when we learn that one of these ships is the USS Melbourne, the very ship which Riker had been offered.

Riker seems to recover from the news pretty quickly (though it's more likely that he's just as horrified and hiding it for the sake of the crew) and orders them to move to intercept the Borg using Shelby's original plan of separating the Enterprise's saucer section. Picard may be expecting that (remember how Shelby had briefed him on it?) but Riker is counting on it.

Both halves of the ship fail to do any damage and evade any of the Borg's attacks. But that's not the point of the attack.

Riker had anticipated Locutus' reactions ahead of time. Earlier, he took Data and Worf aside to brief them on a special assignment. While the Borg are distracted by the two Enterprise sections, they fly a shuttle through the cube's electromagnetic field, allowing them to beam aboard and recover Locutus.

Don't you just love a happy reunion?

The saucer section may have been crippled, but with the threat seemingly being neutralised, the Borg continues on course to Earth, apparently being 100% fine that their incredibly high-value prisoner who was meant to act as the liaison between them and humanity has just been recaptured.

"You underestimate us if you believe this abduction is any concern."

Okay... I mean, I guess he wasn't exactly essential to the invasion.

"Oh shit... how much did I have to drink last night?"

Locutus says that he will do them no harm, and will continue to speak for the Borg as they continue on their course towards Earth.

And everyone is apparently okay with this? Having a Borg drone on board feels like a recipe for either disaster or wacky comedic hijinks. And they do deactivate him, but not before he gets a chance to talk shit about how he'll assimilate all of the crew.

They'd previously discovered that a series of subspace signals have been emanating between Locutus and the Borg cube, and theorise that these signals form the basis of the Borg's collective consciousness. Way back in Q Who, they witnessed that the Borg would self-destruct when separated from the hive mind, which would kill Picard, so their plan is to have Data connect his brain to Locutus' while Dr Crusher performs microsurgery to restore Picard's humanity.

Finally, some treknobabble that actually makes sense to me. Only took us four seasons.

Just as Data gains access to the Borg's neural net, Locutus realises what they're doing and tries to stop them. Data responds by removing Locutus' deely-bopper hand thing which all the Borg have for some reason, so now he just looks like he has his arm stuck in a high-tech Pringles tube.

They realise that the Borg are unable to sever their link to Picard, so Data attempts to implant a command in the Borg's consciousness to disarm their weapons.

Think of it like that Robot Chicken night crew sketch where getting one Borg to party convinced them all to party, except we're supposed to take this completely seriously.

I'll be honest, I was hoping for an ending that was a bit less... anticlimactic.

To the credit of Michael Piller (who wrote both parts), he probably realised this and tried to ramp up the tension by having Riker almost resort to setting the Enterprise on a collision course with the Borg cube, as well as the uncertainty of what will happen to Picard, but of course the Borg are disabled, the cube is destroyed, and Picard is returned to normal.

Riker: How much do you remember?

Picard: ...Everything. Including some brilliant strategy from a former First Officer of mine.

Hoo boy.

Even later, when Picard's implants have been removed, Shelby disembarks and Riker reaffirms his confidence in his own career path, we get the sense that he still hasn't entirely recovered.

Looks like someone's going to need some

Shore Leave Therapy!

7.5/10 - Not quite as strong as the first part, but still a worthy conclusion.

There. It's over. Now onto the rest of the season.

Previous Episode | TNG Masterpost | Next Episode

[a-stitch-in-time-and-space]

Queers in Space (DS9 Edition) Part 1 (Seasons 1-midway season 5)

Continuation to Queers in Space (TNG)

Benjamin Sisko: Similar to Picard's Captain-Gender, Sisko is Dad (some characters, like Julian, might occasionally look at him and think Daddy, mainly when he's being Righteous). He’s very caught up in caring about everything and is just happy he’s got such a large family (although he wishes there were more babies he could dote on). What he otherwise really loves is getting pegged by beautiful women.

Kasidy Yates: Speaking of women who peg...  She uses she/her pronouns and “woman” but her relationship to gender is like... not relevant. Not needed. Whatever. Call me whatever and I'll respond to it. And she's pan. She's been in space for long enough to have realised that attraction is attraction. Chaotic bench, I love her.

Jake Sisko: he's a burgeoning bisexual, Byron is his literary inspiration and he's the only man on DS9 who's pretty consistently half-well-dressed (you cannot change my mind about this). He and Nog have tested kissing. Mayhaps they may try out more in future.

Kira Nerys: Her lesbianism was so powerful that she was barely allowed to interact with other women (mirror!Kira may have been a bad bisexual trope, but she was also far closer to the truth). Not just a lesbian, but stompin' about in her butch boots and padded shoulders for the first half of the series, damn! All those guys she keeps dating are her beards.

Jadzia Dax: Omnisexual, poly, genderqueer babe - the poly part is why I cannot fully ship her with Worf, even though I love that she’s with a partner she can spar with (in ahem multiple ways). The whole point of trill is to experience life to the fullest and Jadzia takes that brief very seriously (that is canon!). At heart she's also very romantic. The fact that she and Nerys don't seem to have any storylines together is homophobia.

Julian Bashir: Trans, queer, dork. He canonically comes aboard knowing nothing about himself or the universe, he's just here to learn and have a good time and be an idealistic hero and accidentally fall in love with both his best friend and a lizard spyman and we're here cheering that wonderful foot-fetishist on like proud parents (Benjamin has literally sat him down to give him his blessing, but also express his confusion about his tastes).

Elim Garak: Blessed by the mouth of Andy Robinson himself, omnisexual and into Julian and down to clown and generally just a chaotic energy of fun and murder and sex, in whatever order. I read a thing about Cardassians choosing gender through specific make-up and the blue mark on the forehead, and they're all intersex and honestly Yes This! Garak opted out. He dresses like the genderqueer slut icon he is.

Miles O'Brien: I could go 50 different places with him. At first I wrote him off as a straight cis guy, but then as DS9 went on I became less sure... for one, there's Julian and the poly marriage with Keiko and Nerys. For two... it'd be fun if he were gendershrug. “I'm an engineer, I haven't got time to think about that” - does this open up the possibility that in the future all humans choose their own gender? I mean, the federation is supposed to be a form of minor utopia, so yes, and Miles just never got around to it and never will.

Keiko O'Brien: My poly, pan queen. I didn't see her and Nerys coming at aaaall and may I just say I am thrilled. It's what she deserves. She has two hands and a large heart (and a large bed too). She's a lady, but by now I've entirely decided that cis just doesn't exist at that point in the future. Gender is A Choice and she liked the sound of woman and like with everything else she liked the sound of, she grabbed it with both hands and went “mine” (she did that with Miles and Nerys as well).

Worf (Part 2): Ds9 is when Worf got more interesting to me. He was fine on TNG, but here, my word. Both the worst and the best. Okay, yes, he's very monogamous, I will relent. But also he's got a much bigger bi energy going for him, which I celebrate. On that note, if Garak isn't his type, what kinda person is? I'm assuming he's just not into Cardassians as a rule, because of their culture-biases. He likes a partner who'll punch him in the face before propositioning with all their cards on the table. What he needs is to get pegged.

Odo: Ace and aro. He’s full of love. In order to mimic “solids” he tries to make sense of his emotions from their perspectives and so comes to the conclusion that he definitely isn’t allowed to love Quark and definitely ought to be in romantic love with Nerys, but once he understands himself better, he doesn’t feel such a need to limit himself. He has unlimited hands you guys!!!! (sometimes he has no hands, but that doesn’t limit him either). He’s tried out various body shapes, and he likes the sound of “man.” He can’t place his finger on why, and honestly he doesn’t have to. It’s his identity. Hope he realises how loved he is.

Quark: He thought he was your average straight man on the station, but ds9 has a way of bringing out your true colours and it turns out he’s in love with an occasional bucket of goo. He expresses this by snarking at aforementioned goo-man. This isn’t even me, this is just... canon facts. Ferengi have strong binary genders. Quark is a man, but he’s later not-so-secretly sympathetic towards people who veer away from binary gender, such as...

Rom: Is “not having the lobes for business” code for being trans-femme? Kinda feeling it is. In a way it’s harder to be trans-masc, simply because afab people in Ferengi culture have a much harder time escaping the home planet in order to explore themselves, and Rom will eventually launch a campaign for equality for trans Ferengi (what is “trans” in Ferengi?) Also he’s more ace than he realises. He has urges (that one episode... definitely proved that), but they’re not directed at anyone. He likes being loved. Surprisingly sex doesn’t play as big a role in that as he might’ve thought it would.

Nog: "Doesn’t have the lobes for business” but is kinda chill about gender. Probably due to having grown up amongst other humanoids. Especially come starfleet academy he fully embraces gender and sexuality definitions as being “eh” to him. It’s not his interest, so he doesn’t define it. That being said, he’s also somewhere along the bi/pan spectrum.

Leeta: Pan-ace. She likes a certain amount of attention, and she has strong sensual attraction and she doesn’t mind sex, but as long as she’s loving and loved, she’s happy. After dumping Julian (like they both deserve), she gets a bunch of sugar-parents, who pay her school for her. It’s like hunger games out there, with how every one of them tries to impress her the most. She likes the attention and she loves studying, she can do it all. Be a bombshell and a smart cookie.

Gul Dukat: His gender and sexuality are “idiot clown-man.”

[ezrisdax-archive]

Thoughts on a fun way to make a Star Trek/Mass Effect crossover? Or characters interactions cross-series?

like a full crossover? hmmm, certainly it’d be a parallel worlds type situation where I feel in Trek world the Leviathans didn’t evolve and create the Reapers and thus life wasn’t constantly wiped out and that’s why there’s more of an alien populace in the galaxy to explain the stark differences. And then time travel would get involved too since ME takes place before Trek.

So depending on which Trek you’re gonna go with (which for me I can pick any) there’s some wormhole shenanigans going on only what they call wormholes are the dark energy spots that Reapers use in ME time. The crew is investigating them when they go through it and end up in ME time (or if you want the ship accidentally goes through a la Voyager crossing over quadrants).

At first the crew is clearly trying to not get involved but can’t resist the chance to explore and learn the differences and when they realize this isn’t their actual past and can interact with the place more, which brings them into contact with the Normandy which has been sent to investigate the strange readings so we get to crew interactions of (which I’ll put under a cut cause it got long):

Spock and/or Tuvok, and Liara discussing the Vulcan Mind Meld versus the Asari meld and coming to the conclusion that they might have a genetic link back

Tali and B’Elanna having a field day comparing notes (and complaining) on what it’s like keeping a ship together when you don’t have all the parts you really need since Tali used to do that with the Quarian ships and B’Elanna does that now

Kirk and Shepard discussing choices made that shape worlds for better or worse despite the best of intentions and geeking out over model ships. You can’t tell me that doesn’t happen.

Bashir and Mordin are the only people able to understand each other in their speed talking and excitedly sharing notes about different aliens.

Worf and Wrex and Grunt immediately start a fight (bonus points for Wrex insulting Worf for sounding like Uvenk whom Dorn voices)

Seven and Legion (in a world where he lives, what do you mean he dies) discussing what it’s like going from a hive mind to being individuals and coming to find yourself and who you are as a person, like Legion clearly was more involved in finding this aspect for his people as opposed to Seven who had it forced on her but they share the desire now to learn and become an individual and protect those they care about

Janeway and Shepard blow something up by accident while trying to investigate something because of course they do

Samara and Deanna sitting down and just discussing life because I feel like these two would be friends and smirking at their friends antics and secretly betting on who’s gonna get into what danger

I actually have a lot of thoughts about paragon!Shepard and Michael being similar characters in the sense of having this burden of the galaxy placed on them and speaking out against things that people refuse to see except for the crew they’re apart of and trying to warn people of a war and do their best to prevent it and bring people together

Tilly and Tali and Gabby together would be a delight I feel, just talking excitedly about everything under the sun. including the sun.

Sulu and Joker arguing who's a better pilot and Sulu being fascinated how Mass Effect fields work when it comes to piloting and Joker proudly explaining it

Sisko tries to adopt Grunt from Shepard (no I’m mostly kidding, I think that Sisko and Shep have a great deal of respect for each other in caring for the crew and having in placed in an almost god like reverence in certain situations and the struggles with that. and then also Sisko brings back baseball to the Mass Effect world. Shepard absolutely hates that)

I figure the EMH would actually be most interested in biotics and the science of that and writing down to make a paper to publish as the first hologram to do so.

Likewise EDI is fascinated with hologram technology that Trek’s have and if the ships have ever developed sentience in any way and if she can incorporate some of that technology into the Normandy to further her own development

I think Kira gets along with Wrex and is angry at Salarians on his behalf once she hears what was done to the Krogan because the genocide of a species hits hard with her

Tilly and Samantha are even worse than Bashir and Mordin at talking so fast no one gets it but them and they very much do enjoy talking to each other

Tom and Steve have shuttle races until they’re ordered back by their bosses because really guys

Geordi has a lot of talks with EDI, some about his friendship with Data and the human side of interacting with a being that’s trying to learn about humanity themselves but most about the ship and the benefits of integration with it that allow you to be aware of everything that’s happening on it

also Data and EDI tell the worst jokes and everyone regrets this

Picard and Thane drink tea together and discuss philosophies and Thane talks about his species old artifacts and how they were lost to his culture and Picard just listens with interest and some ideas on how you could maybe get those back

Jadzia and Jack get along surprisingly well, they have a holodeck fight at one point and Jadzia takes tricorder readings of biotics and then they go out drinking together

on the flip side Ezri and Miranda get along in terms of being forced to live up to unreasonable family expectations (all though far less harsh in Ezri’s case) and having to carve out your own identity and also like...weirdly everyone hating you for no other reason than your character exists

Bev gets into playing poker with Kaidan and Steve and now they’re all trying to beat each other constantly at it

Saru and Liara get along the easiest at first and discuss the wild things their crews get up to and how they eventually just started to go along with the madness

Kasumi keeps trying to steal from Tuvok but can’t manage it and thinks it’s the best challenge she’s had in years. Tuvok just wants to talk to Thane and get back to the Delta Quadrant already captain.

Harry and Jacob get to talking about having to prove themselves and always being looked over and the troubles of trying to get your own command

Bones hates all of this, Kirk what the hell have you done now. That said he and Zaeed get to drinking and talking about the bullshit that comes from space travel. All though Zaeed’s is more about how annoying it is to try to kill someone in it. Bones thinks he’s just over exaggerating and not a mercenary at first.

James keeps showing off for literally everyone and turning things into a competition with whoever he can when it comes to physical activities, he’s still sulking that Data beat him until he finds out that Data is an android and then calls foul on it.

Odo and Zaeed grumble about everything together

B’Elanna and Ashley have a book club that they don’t tell anyone about and share romance novels and poetry while complaining about how everyone doesn’t expect it from them and that’s part of why they don’t tell people those parts of themselves

Uhura gets the translators turned off on the Normandy to listen to everyone’s dialect and language and is quick to pick up on it, she’s especially good with Drell and enjoys conversing with Thane in it

Liara is absolutely freaked out that Deanna sounds like her mother and Deanna is absolutely using this to troll her whenever she can because it amuses her

Grunt and Chekov get into arguments about history of all things despite that people keep pointing out that they’re from alternate worlds and therefore it’s different anyway

Chakwas and Chakotay sit down to talk about what it’s like sorta taking care of the crew and just ridiculous stories of things they’ve put with

Riker at one point talks to Miranda about clones and dealing with someone who is the same genetically as you but isn’t you and do you have a relationship with them or leave them be (they don’t come up with an answer really)

Mordin gets banned from taking samples of other aliens

Nog and Gabby talk one point about being sorta new to the experiences of war and frontline suddenly and the horrors that come with it and share their experiences of being trapped by the Reapers vs being in a Jem’Hadar fight and coming back from that

Guinan doesn’t care much for Javik but they do have one good discussion about what it’s like being one of the last of your species and seeing so many of them die due to a machine race (and worse, converted to serve that race) that you just can’t fight back against no matter how much you try (or that’s what they thought at the time)

Samantha and Spock and Kirk and/or Airiam have strategy game nights and really get into it and Spock will typically leave while Sam and Kirk are still geeking out over it until the morning

Quark is banned from the Normandy point blank

Worf tries to get everyone to appreciate Klingon opera, the only one he manages to get into it are Grunt and Legion

Scotty is especially fascinated with the drive core of the Normandy and talks to Adams about it constantly

Chakotay and James having a boxing match at one point

Jake interviews like everyone and is thinking about turning this experience into a novel and enjoys listening to everyone’s stories

O’Brien and Garrus get caught up in calibrations, can you come back later

okay this literally is getting too long already but I could keep going. I think then there’s a group discussion about the Borgs vs the Reapers and the troubles everyone faces in those fights and a lot of back and forth about things that have worked for one crew that may help someone else out (like the Changeling cure to maybe help the Genophage cure or vice versa)

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.07: Missions Reviewed, “Behind the Lines,” “Favor the Bold,” and “Sacrifice of Angels.”

“Behind the Lines” begins as the Defiant has a new mission as Starfleet intelligence has discovered a listening post the Dominion has been using to track Alliance fleet movements across five sectors. The issue is that very array will track the Defiant approaching to attack. A risky approach through the Argolis Star Cluster is planned, but Sisko won’t be commanding. He is promoted to Admiral Ross’ adjutant, and now coordinating all Starfleet actions from Starbase 375. Dax takes command.

 On DS9, Odo, Kira, Rom, and Jake continue their resistance. Rom makes sure the Jem’Hadar get a hold of Damar’s report showing that ketracel white supplies in the Alpha Quadrant will not hold. He recommends poisoning the last batch so the Dominion soldiers don’t become a mass of berserkers killing everyone in their path. The Jem’Hadar don’t take well to this, causing a brawl that leaves many Cardassian and Jem’Hadar casualties in Quark’s and strains the Dukat/Weyoun power structure. Odo is angry, as he had voted against this idea, thinking the resistance would tip its hand. While discussing it with Kira, the Female Changeling arrives on station, apparently trapped in the Alpha Quadrant by the minefield. She is desperate to link (or so she says) and begins to again instruct Odo in the ways of shapeshifters. 

Damar reveals to Quark (after some “kanar,” Cardassian booze) that he has a plan to disable the self replicating mines. Rom figures out what it must be, and the group plans to have Odo disable sensors so Rom can sabotage the equipment. Odo is distracted by linking with the Female again, and Rom is captured. 

Dax and the Defiant return from their mission, successful, and Sisko observes her as the Captain, knowing now that she has this under control.

So many great character moments here, from the Last Temptation of Odo to Rom stepping up as Resistance, to Quark slowly getting pulled into actions against the Dominion as well. Kira’s fury as an apathetic Odo hears about Rom is palpable, and may have been such high temperature as to actually melt my laptop screen a little. The story forcing us to hear about the Defiant’s mission rather than see it gives us a taste of Sisko’s frustration.  Hearing them actually begin to discuss the possibility of an attack on Earth was pretty jarring to Star Trek fans in the 90s, and that tension still plays today, even knowing where the show is going.

“Favor the Bold” shows us a Resistance desperate to get Rom released as he has been sentenced to death. Guards will not let Kira and Quark near Odo’s quarters, as Odo has been in the room with the Female for three days.  We see Odo, still communing, and when the Female tells him it has been three days, he is shaken. Meanwhile, looking for a way to turn the war around, Sisko hatches a plan to retake DS9. 

The Starfleet admiralty is at first resistant, again citing how diverting resources leaves the inner worlds vulnerable, but Sisko argues that Earth is “not the key to the Alpha Quadrant; the wormhole is.” With Starfleet approval, Sisko sends Martok and Worf to Qo’Nos to convince a reluctant Gowron to direct Klingon ships into this battle as well.  On DS9, the deactivation of the minefield has begun, and Rom in prison asks Quark to continue his mission to find a way to stop the new graviton beam from disabling any more. Kira asks Ziyal to intervene on Rom’s behalf with Dukat. Odo finds Kira to apologize, but she says “we are way past sorry.” Jake, using the barfly Morn, gets a message to his father regarding the mines, and with a newly minted Ensign Nog and crew they take their place at the head of a fleet of 600 Federation starships. They are soon met by 1200 Dominion and Cardassian ships. “Fortune favors the bold,” Sisko hopes, and the battle for DS9 begins.

I remember having to watch this weekly in the 90s, and by the Great Bird how tough that was.  The ability to just hit “next” on Netflix is a gift and a curse.  You don’t want to stop. This is the show at its best, and the stakes keep building. I remarked to Jennifer how well the effects hold up after 20 years, but let’s save that discussion for the next episode. Looking back over my summary, there are big things I missed, like the Dukat/Ziyal drama, and Kira beating the hell out of Damar for putting a hand on Ziyal, or Leeta’s concern for Rom and how the Bajoran and Ferengi governments are negotiating for his release.  So many details, so much drama, and all of it is fantastic.  These episodes aired in 1997, and their storytelling sets the stage for what is now the expectation from HBO or Netflix. “Babylon 5” certainly has its influence, but modern television is born on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The Federation fleet faces off with the Dominion as “Sacrifice of Angels” begins. O’Brien and Bashir are quoting “Charge of the Light Brigade” while Sisko tries to get the Cardassians to break formation and chase the Federation fighter wings. This will open a hole in the Dominion line the Federation will try and break through. 

They know it is a matter of hours before the Dominion takes down the minefield and tens of thousands of Jem’Hadar ships pour into the Alpha Quadrant. On DS9, Damar warns Dukat there are “elements” that may be trying to counter them: Kira, Jake, and Leeta. They are locked up with Rom. Quark has enough and gets Ziyal to go with him. Quark surprises himself with a bold rescue where he literally has a phaser in each hand, shooting two Jem’Hadar soldiers at once.  Kira and Rom run to try to keep the minefield from being destroyed by disabling the station’s weapons. Dukat describes to Weyoun how he only wanted to shepherd Bajor, and what a protector he is. How you don’t just kill your enemies, you make sure they know they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. He orders the Cardassian ships to make Sisko think his plan is working by breaking a hole, which the Federaiton jumps into. They are about to be defeated when out of the sun, the Klingon fleet emerges.

 The line breaks and the Defiant gets through, alone, setting maximum warp to DS9. Odo, having discusses his dismay with the Female Changeling realizes what he has become and his love for Kira prevents him from giving in to the Founders. He helps Kira and Rom get into the weapons controls. Rom disables them, but just after Damar has detonated the minefield. 

The wormhole is open, and the Dominion is coming. The Defiant arrives, and with weapons down, Damar cannot shoot it down. The Defiant plunges into the Wormhole to meet thousands of Dominion ships head on. Garak asks how “that poem” ends, and O’Brien tells him he doesn’t want to know. Sisko is at once in the presence of the Prophets, and he reminds them that they want to protect Bajor. They agree, but tell Sisko there is a price; he will never find peace on Bajor, and “his path is different.” Fading back into his reality, Sisko watches the Defiant’s main viewscreen as the enormous Dominion fleet…disappears. 

On DS9, Dukat, Damar, Weyoun, and the Founder watch the wormhole open and only the Defiant emerge.  With the Dominion fleet gone Weyoun declares “Time to start packing,” as the Founder orders the Dominion forces to pull back to Cardassia. Dukat searches for Ziyal, trying to get her to come too. She refuses, telling him it was her who helped Rom and Kira escape. Damar appears and shoots Ziyal as a traitor. 

Dukat snaps unable to leave his dead daughter. The Defiant docks, reuniting Jake and Ben; Worf and Dax; Bashir, O’Brien and the holosuites. Garak looks for Ziyal, and overhears someone say Kira is with Ziyal in the infirmary. Garak finds Kira with Ziyal’s body and Kira tells him “She loved you.”  “I could never figure out why,” he says. “I guess I never will.” Sisko finds a broken and mumbling Dukat in security, talking as if Ziyal is there and he will take her back to Cardassia.  Dukat tells his phantom daughter that he forgives her, and then looks at Sisko. “I forgive you too,” he says, handing Sisko back his baseball.

This six episode arc comes to a stunning conclusion.  Some may cite a “deus ex machina” in the end, but to ignore the fact the Sisko has been presented as a having this connection to the Prophets since the very first episode.  It’s not deus ex machina when the gods were already recurring characters (See also: Battlestar Galactica).  Damar building as a character who is so loyal to Dukat as to kill the bosses daughter for him contributes to how we will see his conscience tear at him until he too has his own form of break. The Klingons arriving are simply gorgeous, and the effects, perhaps not quite as flashy as the Abrams films or Discovery, hold up very well here. Thinking of the logistics necessary in the nascent days of CGI mixed with model making necessary to pull this off makes them stunning. The tracking shots of Defiant racing along the surfaces of Dominion ships is a better effect than several modern films and tv shows, which I will not name as I don’t like to be negative on the internet. (DM me for what I think is the worst SF show in years.)  The heartbreaking ending to Ziyal’s story, managing to leave Dukat a broken shell and Garak and Kira both reeling is effective, and I will miss her character. Weyoun’s handclap and line about leaving is just a wonderful note in this symphony, and now we get to see Odo truly try to find his redemption. Peak Star Trek. These six episodes were actually adapted into a series of novels, and they absolutely deserve to be.

NEXT MISSION: After war, loss, and destruction, the show lets us catch our breath with THE wedding of the 24thCentury! Dax and Worf decide to merge their houses in “You Are Cordially Invited”!

[bitterlybisexualbard]

They also seem to forget that ALL Trek shows have darker episodes, including Next Gen and Voyager (voyager more so given that, again, it explores Star Fleet ideals when removed from the ideal context). DS9 and Voyager got a lot of flak for Sisko and Janeway's behaviour at the time, and Janeway still gets lambasted about being "inconsistent" (you try leading a cross cultural group of one-time enemies ona 7 year trek across unknown space with no resources and see if your values and approaches don't shift over time...), but the fact remains that they were deliberately put in situations any regular captain, even a frontier explorer like Kirk, wouldn't have to deal with.

The point of the shows wasn't "Look how stupid and unattainable Star Fleet ideals are in the REAL world" or "Look at these assholes pretending they know best" or even "Look at these leaders who can't do Star Fleet right"

The point was to explore the darker and more difficult sides of Star Fleet and and humanity while still coming to the conclusion that people will always, inevitably, do their best even in the worst situations. And sometimes it won't be pretty, sometimes they realise afterwards that they went too far or made the wrong call, and sometimes they'll never be sure if any of it was worth it (and sometimes Berman will drag his neoliberal slime over everything and ruin it a little), but still, they'll keep trying to do better.

I won't slag off the newer shows, they're practically their own entity in the same way that Next Gen, DS9 and Voyager were very different from TOS, and it's up to the viewer whether they're into it. Some people prefer it, some really don't, and neither is wrong for their preference. But new Trek darkness is a completely different, far more cynical kind of darkness than DS9, and it's kinda missing the point of both to compare the two

Thinking of Deep Space Nine as "the Dark Star Trek" without digging into what made Deep Space Nine work is so reductive. Like when people discuss Star Trek being "dark" now people bring up "DS9 was Dark and you loved that! Trekkies would hate it now!"

Deep Space Nine didn't work bc it was Dark and it wasn't Dark out of nowhere. Deep Space Nine is intimately tied to TNG in a way no other series is with another (Voyager could've been just as rooted in DS9, but. Y'know. Wasn't). Not only in characters, but that the show is so devoted to exploring deep cuts from TNG: the Bajorans, but also the Ferengi, long dismissed as failed villains, and the Trill, one-off aliens-of-the-week who DS9's writers turned into one of Trek's major species. The central thesis of DS9 isn't that the Trek Universe Is Fucked Up Actually. It's that things get more messy and complicated when Starfleet has to stick around and not dash off to another planet at the end of the episode

DS9 is darker than other Treks, yes, but DS9 is also the warmest, with the most grounded, human characters, not in spite of the fact that two-thirds of the cast are aliens but because of it. The writers treat alien characters as not representatives, but individuals. They treat everyone as individuals, with foibles and flaws, not as perfect, straitlaced future people. DS9's dark episodes are darker than other Treks, but also it's more willing to get silly and emotional. Only DS9 could do the "Sisko confesses to a conspiracy to get the Romulans in the war" episode, but also only DS9 could do the "a holographic lounge singer tries to get Odo and Kira together" episode right after it. Boiling the entire series down to "Deep Space Nine was the Dark Star Trek! Grimdark!" is...just not it

[winglandwasteland]

To Boldly Go

Wrote this last semester for my final English project and in the end though that I would share it with all of you as I am pretty proud of it. 

To Boldly Go

Introduction

“Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” - William Shatner 

Star Trek, one of the greatest science fiction programs of all time, is also one of the most groundbreaking. It draws the viewer in as mentioned in my interview with my friend by teaching us valuable lessons, which were taught to the audience through the idea of mythology. It retold old myths and created new ones which will last for a lifetime. And even though these myths and lessons are buried under the main plot of Star Trek they come to the surface if you only stop and look.

What is a myth you might ask? Well a myth as defined by Joseph Campbell, as stated in the article Star Trek: A Mythology For Our Time, must be mystical, cosmological, sociological and pedagogical. This definition will be important later on when we talk about how Star Trek creates its own myth; for now it's relevant that we note how ancient Greek or Roman stories have these elements, or parts of any way, which is why we can call them myths. This being helpful when comparing Star Trek to myths as it gives us a solid foundation when comparing the two.

How Star Trek Shows Mythology

Comparing Star Trek to myth like that of ancient Greece is quite easy to do; So imagine if you will, two people each on a journey. One of these people travels, exploring the world by way of the ocean, the other by way of space. These two people are none other than Captain James T. Kirk and Odysseus, two men on similar journeys. Journeys paralleled by strong, intelligent leaders each taking their crew on an epic adventure on which they fight of monsters and aliens; a comparison pointed out by the article Greek Myth & Science Fiction. Though this is only one of many similarities that are made in this article. Others can include things from comparing Vulcans to the Greek god Hephaestus or the idea that the Orions compare to the greek goddess Artemis which is stated in another article entitled 10 Similarities Between Star Trek and Ancient Rome.

The next thing that we could make a comparison to which I previously stated is the Star Trek alien species Vulcans to the Greek god Hephaestus. Vulcans are an alien species that have pointy ears, green blood, a different arrangement of their internal organs, are governed by a strict code of logic, no emotions and live on a planet call Vulcan. Hephaestus on the other hand is the Greek version of the Roman god Vulcan, so that’s all ready one similarity in terms of name. Other similarities come from what Hephaestus is the god of which is fire, the forge, metallurgy, volcanoes and technology. Fire and volcanoes go hand and hand and can relate Hephaestus to the Vulcans in the fact that their home planet Vulcan has a surface with many volcanoes and lava fields. Lastly, I find that the most important observation is that while Hephaestus is the god of technology, Vulcan’s are Star Trek’s god of technology or master as they are noted for creating advanced warp drives in order to travel the galaxy.

The last example that I shall give is to that of the Orions. In Star Trek the Orions are a green skinned alien species that comes from the planet Orion. Now the relationship between this and mythology can be summed up quite easily in the fact that the name a least relates to the Greek goddess Artemis. In mythology Artemis had a special relationship with Orion and in Star Trek The Orions fit nicely with in the realm of the universe even with their animalistic and primal ways. Forthright it is to be noted that like the mythical Amazons the Orion woman also give poor treat to men.

How Star Trek Creates Its Own Myth

In this last part we take the idea of mythology one step further, into the realm of originality. To do this we begin with the definition of a myth as given by Joseph Campbell where he states that a myth must be mystical (infinite), cosmological (infinitesimal), sociological (how to existe with in society) and lastly pedagogical (how to live in any time period); Star Trek A Mythology For Our Time goes on to state what each part of the definition means, same as me.

The mystical part can be represented by Star Trek’s demonstration of the many possibilities of human life and culture. Basically Gene Roddenberry vision for humanities future.

The cosmological part is depicted by semi-omnipotent being and their general disregard for humans. In my mind the best example of this is with Q. Q is a being of the Q Continuum and from the article One Trek Mind: Benjamin Sisko - Son Of A God, it is stated that Captain Picard refers to him as “Having the power of god.” This power lets him do whatever he wants, so with it he chooses not to care about the wellbeing of humans and other species.   

The sociological lessons from Star Trek are plentiful. There are literally so many examples that I don’t think that I can give one. Though one main theme or lesson is that of inclusivity and of not discriminating. This is shown throughout the series with the many different species getting along.

Lastly we have the pedagogical function where  the characters are seen as role models. These characters are role models because they help tell you how to act in life and you can relate to them. I personally find a role model in Captain Kathryn Janeway as she is the first Female Star Trek Captain, loves science and is not afraid to give you her opinion. In an interview with my friend, it was stated he connected to characters like that of Data, Captain Picard and The Doctor because of there musical ability.

Long after The Original Series, long after any of the series the fans have rallied to make their mark on The Star Trek universe. The most common way that they have done this is through fanfiction. The definition of fanfiction according to dictionary.com is “fiction written by fans of a TV series, movie, etc., using existing characters and situations to develop new plots.” This is extremely helpful as it allows the sociological aspect of myth to change, to evolve and conform to the world in which the piece of writing is written. I personally have created many character just for Star Trek fanfiction and what I have found is that this does allows me to tell my interpretation, my view on the Star Trek myth.  

Star Trek has even created a few in universe myths/religions for that of the Klingon and Bajoran species. These “myths” do the same thing for the species that believe them as the myth of Star Trek does for the viewers. The important thing these myths do is help give certain characters, (like that of Worf with his honor and Kira with her strength and testiment of faith) qualities that bring out the pedagogical function of mythology.    

Conclusion

As you can see Star Trek is an ever changing universe that uses and creates myths to teach us a lot of valuable lessons. It is our modern myth. A world with character and situations that relate to the time in which it is written.

Tags: @outside-the-government @lyrasilverroseelizabethamanti @star-trekkin-across-theuniverse @poetictrekkie @trekpositive @trekmystars @lizzexx

[sfdfmoviereviews]

‘Setting Aside All The Legal And Ethical Issues Involved’: A Deep Space Nine Retrospective

Star Trek Deep Space Nine has long been a blindspot for me. I’ve previously stated that Trek of the nineties became increasingly domesticated until Voyager and Enterprise consciously adopted premises that would restore the opera to space. Sitting at the conclusion of this trend would be Deep Space Nine, a show in which the Enterprise was traded in for a space pretzel and boldly going was forsaken in favour of intrigue and war. However, to find out if that was the case I would have to actually watch the show, so I did.

Unlike my previous retrospectives, I didn’t have the time to watch the entirety of Deep Space Nine. I followed the geek.com rewatch guide until the beginning of season six, then watched every episode of seasons six and seven. I later went back to watch Life Support, Heart of Stone, Doctor Bashir, I Presume, For the Cause, and For the Uniform as those were episodes missed by the rewatch guide that looked important. If you can recommend any episodes I haven’t seen, let me know.

Before I get in to things I must clarify. If you’ve been following this blog you would know that I’ve previously written about Babylon 5, the J. Michael Strazcinski helmed space opera to which Deep Space NIne is so often compared. I prefer Babylon 5 to Deep Space Nine, but I don’t think it’s productive to discuss why one show is better than the other. If you like deep Space Nine more than Babylon 5, I’m glad it makes you happy.

Deep Space Nine does not so much extend Star Trek as take place within Star Trek. While ships go off exploring the delta quadrant, Deep Space Nine stays at the door and manages the traffic. There are murders and ambassadors and planets, but the show is more concerned with the intricacies of galactic politics than going boldly.

In fairness there is a war on. The Dominion War is the kind of event that Star Trek would normally use as back story; the kind of barbarism that the humanity of the 24th century has moved beyond. Here we are thrust into the mess of it, and the greater part of Deep Space Nine is concerned with the detail of waging an interstellar war. Ends justify means, and casualties are suffered. Moreover, the Federations cupboard is opened and the skeletons played with; Section 31 comes to light as the federations muscle, and the implications of those sterile treaties between ambassadors is given a human face in the Marquis. Admirals attempt to co-opt fear for fun and profit and children are sent to war. It’s all very grim.

But if there is any failing in Deep Space Nine it is the lack of reconciliation between the machinations of the Federation here and it’s ideals elsewhere. Benjamin Sisko and Julian Bashir and Worf carry on in the face of great assault on their principles, but emerge with little to show for it all. The show was Star Trek’s first foray into the story arc, that great tool of the golden age of television, but it fails to reach any interesting conclusion. Stuff happens that takes more than an hour to resolve, but there is little overall narrative beyond the development of individual characters, the plot of the war, and whatever the Prophets have in store for Sisko. Julian Bashir may be filled with disgust at the actions of section 31 but he doesn’t do anything to end it’s tenure. Sisko may have lost all self-respect in bringing Romulus into the war through subterfuge and murder, but there is no great fallout from this. Eddigton’s rage at the Federation on behalf of the Marquis comes to naught as the movement is subsumed by the greater conflict. When Sisko and Ross refuse to drink a toast to the defeat of Cardassia with Martok, it rings with the hypocrisy of men who wish to be above the kind of barbarity they have committed to get here.

If Deep Space Nine has added anything great to the canon of Trek it is not political complexity or long-form storytelling. It is this:

Look at these loveable dorks, who have achieved such greatness. There are no daring captains or genius engineers or automatons aiming for humanity here. Nog becomes the first Ferengi to join the Federation, after seeing the futility of his father’s drive for profit. That same father reveals himself to strive beyond the conventions of his society, eventually reaching a position to overturn it. In a show that is brutally hetero-normative, Leeta is simply an uncompromisingly sexual woman who is never judged for wanting the ostensibly gross Rom. It is here that Deep Space Nine does what Star Trek must, showing us people struggling to be better, and it does it with a family carved from a mishmash of cultures, and not a bridge full of paragons.

Star Trek has long given us a crew with a penchant for the classy things of the twentieth century. Sisko loves baseball, and Miles and Julian live out a thousand boys’ own adventures in the holosuite, Michael Eddington paints himself as Jean Valjean. Nowhere is this more evident than in the creation of Vic Fontaine, a living hologram of a nightclub singer in 60s Vegas. For all it’s escapism, none of this is that much fun; we’re watching people relive a fantasy of the past in a meeting place of innumerable cultures, and it limits the show.

Deep Space Nine is also enmeshed with the history of Star Trek; we visit the Mirror Universe and relive The Trouble with Tribbles. While TNG made references to and featured guest appearance from the cast of TOS, it never really treated it with the same level of adulation. This is Trek beginning to show interest in itself divorced from it’s context; there is no going boldly, but instead nostalgia. It’s to be expected that Star Trek would eventually get around to celebrating itself for the sake of it but it gets a little tiresome.

One final note. Deep Space Nine also gave us the USS Defiant:

The Defiant is a federation ship built for war, where the various Enterprises were not. So when some nerd starts waxing tedious about how the Enterprise design is ‘flawed’ based on some understanding of how it did in that one fight with the Borg or the Klingons or somesuch, you can point to this and say ‘that’s not what it’s for! If it were supposed to be a fighting ship it would look like this! NEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDD!’. The Defiant, more than the station itself, is the strongest visual indicator of Deep Space Nine’s place in Staar Trek. This is the war story, and it looks different to everything else because of it.

Deep Space Nine came at the very dawn of arc-based television, and while it is hardly the best example of the form it surely made the path to those shows that would use it well easier; Ron Moore worked on this thing after all. Where it fails it shows us what Star Trek needs to do, push outwards, question everything, be better. Where it succeeds, it shows us how those ideals apply to the imperfect and less capable. Is it actually what I thought it was? The ultimate domestication of Star Trek that subsequent series would seek to avoid? In essence, yes it is, but it is still Star Trek.

Tim

[doopcafe]

Voyager: State of Flux (1x11)

Tuvok is my favorite character. He’s straight-up Vulcan and Tim Russ does one of the best acting jobs on the show. The man is a Vulcan. 

I also enjoyed the self-reference when Torres explains to Janeway that she doesn’t exaggerate:

JANEWAY: How long will it take to set this up? TORRES: We, er, we should be able to make an attempt by tomorrow. JANEWAY: I want it ready by the end of the day. TORRES: No, Captain. When I say “tomorrow,” I mean tomorrow. I don't exaggerate. Tomorrow is the best I can do.

The nod to Scotty’s technique of exaggerating to Kirk to appear like a miracle worker was a nice touch. It felt like the show is becoming more comfortable with itself to stand on its own. 

I also want to mention something about “movie magic.” One basic component of “movie magic” is taking something ordinary and making it seem extraordinary. The scene where Chakotay discovers Seska is filmed in Bronson Caves near LA. I’ve been there, and have walked exactly where Chakotay walked, but it felt alien in the show even though it was visually familiar. Through camera angles, lens filters, and lighting, a good crew can easily produce that effect. 

On the other hand, when it doesn’t work, it’s awkward. The “leola root” that Neelix digs up is a piece of ginger that has been spray painted green. There’s ginger in our fridge right now and there’s absolutely nothing foreign about it. Spray painting it a different color isn’t a sufficient enough change to make it seem alien or foreign. 

Anyways, although Seska’s plan to have the Kazon help them become the dominant power in this quadrant doesn’t quite add up, her cited justification for her betrayal was refreshing to hear. Chakotay asks her why and she responds, 

We are alone here, at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens, because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation Captain. A Federation Captain who destroyed our only chance to get home.

Which is perfectly in line with what most of the audience should have already thought by this point, or, immediately at the conclusion of Caretaker. Did they not have time bombs? Was destroying the array really the only option? It was too little debate for such a major decision with such wide-reaching repercussions. Picard would have polled his officers; Sisko would have held a democratic vote. Janeway’s own decision, made by herself without consulting anyone, effectively trapped 166 people very far from their homes with no easy way back. Did no one question until just now the sanity of the Captain and her decision?

I also want to point out a missed opportunity. Upon discovering a Federation compound aboard a disabled Kazon vessel, Tuvok lists the three possibilities: (1) It’s not a Federation compound, but something similar, (2) the Caretaker had pulled another Starfleet vessel into the Delta Quadrant prior to them and they’re traveling behind it, or (3) they have a traitor on board. 

Ultimately it’s revealed to be the third, but I would have loved to see the second. The idea that there’s another Federation vessel in the Delta Quadrant, also trying to get home and proceeding them by several weeks or months, or even years or a decade would make for some fascinating continuity between episodes and for some serious cliff-hanger material. 

I’ll end with one final point: the Kazon are kinda crappy villains. They’re first introduced as savages living in the desert who covet water and abuse little girls. They lack understanding of Voyager’s technology: when they obtain a device from Voyager, it explodes in their faces with horrible repercussions. 

These antagonists die in a variety of horrific manners for what? When they finally get the device aboard, Torres reports it as something harmless: a simple food replicator. In other words, the Kazon died trying to feed themselves. This doesn’t work well to establish a race of aliens as villains. If anything, they should be pitied and Voyager should be providing humanitarian aid to them.

Anyways, we’ve lost another crew member after Seska beams aboard the Kazon vessel.

Current number of people aboard Voyager: 165 (Seska leaves to join the Kazon) Current number of photon torpedoes: 37 (No change)

[sloan-suggestion]

Guilt by association? A curious conclusion, when all I suggested is that they are familiar; if anyone should be able to confirm who the head of Internal Affairs is, it surely should be Captain Sisko.

If I wanted to accuse him of something, I'd point out his association with the Maquis; after all, he was best friends with Cal Hudson, served as Michael Eddington's C.O. and was involved with Kasidy Yates while she was smuggling for the Maquis... That would be a better incident of guilt by association, wouldn't it? Thankfully, I condemn men by their actions not their associates.

And I don't recall claiming to be with Internal Affairs. It seems to be you who can't get your story straight, despite your eidetic memory.

Run a computer-generate efficiency simulation to determine how Section 31 the Federation Cartography Department gets any work done while one of their senior operatives scientists spends copious amounts of time devising elaborate image essays reinterpreting ancient Earth songs, merely to taunt Michael Eddington.

[thephilosophicalchangeling]

My annual crazy thoughts on new Treks (what do you mean there will be a new animated series im in love)

People I just love Star Trek and I’m happy that we can have more of it BUT

1) PLEASE, if it isn’t a Ds9 prequel where we can see Kira kicking Cardassians’ ass in the resistance, I CAN’T STAND MORE PREQUEL PLEASE LEAVE KIRK’S STORYLINE AND ERA alone!

It is like... perfect in his imperfection from 60s and STOP FUCKIN’UP WITH CANON!

Please

2) Don’t make our faves from other series die

3) STOP turning Star Trek into Star Wars because SW is good in his own way and can’t be comparable with ST and a mixture is not what we need

4) I would really like if we could know more about the post-Nemesis age but I’m scared as hell of Alex Kurtzman. Next Gen age is my fave and I need more of it but... what if new showrunners ruin everything? It’s very dangerous to write more ST in the future timeline.

5) Can you please let us know something about, ya know, Voyager crew? No because poor things they didn’t have even a proper conclusion!

6) GIVE ME MORE TRIBBLES (this is a main theme on my blog so... I’m sorry)

7) Give me happy Odo/Kira reunion, storyline, they live forever happy, children, adopted children, THE OBRIENS VISIT THEM AND THEY FORM ONE HUGE HAPPY FAMILY, Kira has the opportunity to stay with Kirayoshi, Kirayoshi gets a new shapeshifting sister, Sisko comes back and live happily with Cassie and their baby, Rom and Leeta on Ferenginar changing society and havin’ a good time, Odo yelling at Quark, Garak and Bashir kissing and ruling on Cardassia as Spy King and Doctor King, MORN talking, GIVE ME A HAPPY DS9 REUNION with also Jadzia being alive but also Ezri ya know EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT

8) CAPTAIN NOG MUST BE A THING (alongside with reporter J. Sisko)

9) Dark Trek is ok but not ONLY DARK TREK because DSC has so much darkness please give Saru an happy moment

And, last but non least,

10) FOR THE GREAT GREAT LINK AND PROFETS AND Q AND EVERY OTHER DEITY IN STAR TREK PLEASE SAVE THAT POOR BEAGLE NAMED PORTHOS FROM SCOTTY’S HANDS AND MAKE HIM APPEAR ON DS9 OR ON ENTERPRISE E OR ON VOYAGER BECAUSE HE DESERVES TO LIVE AND BE LOVED

Ok people I’ve made my annual Star Trek wish list in poor english grammar (please forgive me I’m not an English native speaker and I don’t live in an anglophone country but I’m a university student who tries very much to be international 🤓) and THIS IS MY HUMBLE OPINION not best than anyone else’s one.

You can enjoy new dark treks and eat Kelpians (? That would be a bit sick and strange honey because Saru is one of the best parts of DSC F I G H T M E), new jj treks, kirk listening to Beastie Boys, you can hate tribbles (Klingons are good people), you can hate O/K (yes well maybe don’t say it to me because I get A N G R Y but a fellow ds9 fan is always beloved and I have to admit that also Kira/Dax is a good ship) and you can love Ezri/Bashir (?!?!?!?), you can hate Voyager reunion, you can hate Porthos (HOW?!?!?!?!) and you will always be welcome on my page ❤️

Not welcome: hate speech, flame, Skrain Dukat, talking about Data’s death because it isn’t canon.

Kisses

[danktrektho]

I love sisko!!! I watch the show and I see him and sometimes I just have to happy stim. I love the way he's acted and I love his smile and his character and his story. I have both small and large sisko playmates action figures. And of course I love the baseball thing, I'm literally obsessed with baseball and mark my words I will be bringing my sisko action figure to a game this season. I started watching ds9 in no small part due to my sister showing me the baseball episode. So yeah I hope my fanboying gives him a little more justice :) he deserves it!!

[POINTS AT YOU] ur thoughts on sisko my liege

[bows] why, certainly, my liege!

...alright so this template doesn't have the right squares to adequately sum up the way i actually feel about sisko. but i did the best with the squares i was provided, because there was no option for "wow. good dad :')" and i am nothing if not adaptable. i think there's a lot of nuance and complexity to sisko's character, but he doesn't get enough attention from the fanbase sometimes. like a lot of characters, he kind of gets drowned out by ship content, which is a shame, because sisko is SO interesting. i marked off that he works better as part of a dynamic because that dynamic is him at the head of his crew; i think my favorite sisko moments are when he's just having fun with his crew, doing stuff like cooking or playing baseball, because it takes this character we know as a strong leader and really humanizes him. but also he's just??? such a cool captain??? probably my favorite, in fact??? as you can see i'm very incoherent about him, but i think he's very neat. and yes, i want him to be my dad. don't we all.

[ask me for my character opinions!]