#lisa cusak

[sshbpodcast]

Top 3 Star Trek Deep Space Nine characters

By Ames

A Star to Steer Her By is continuing our trend of spotlighting minor and one-off characters from all the series. We did it with The Original Series. We did it with The Next Generation. And after having a lot of nostalgic vibes from this week’s podcast episode, we’re ready to give some glory to our favorite characters from Deep Space Nine!

There are just a TON of great characters throughout a series known for its amazing character work, and we did a pretty good job limiting ourselves to those who we didn’t see that much of since so many folks become familiar faces over the course of the show. So spin the wheel with us as you see all our picks below and listen to our very difficult decisions over on the podcast (discussion starts at 1:03:03). These characters will have you yelling “Dabo!”

[images © CBS/Paramount] 

Jake – Honorable fights

Aamin Marritza

Tekeny Ghemor

Grilka

Walk a mile in the shoes of any of Jake’s picks and you’ll be exhausted by the hardships you have to endure just to do the right thing. From a pair of Cardassian men whom we’ve discussed in our Cardassians blogpost, one who is trying to atone for the wrongs committed by an entire people and one who is secretly leading a dissident movement on Cardassia, we move on to one of our favorite Klingon lasses who just wants to bring honor to her house in defiance of some of the more sexist laws on Q’onos. Qapla’!

—

Ames – Voices of a generation

Tosk

Pel

Lisa Cusak

I am Tosk! The three one-off characters that I’m highlighting all make us not only look differently at how we treat people, but also in how we tell our stories. Let’s start with the first species we meet from the Gamma Quadrant who relates the complicated history of his hunted people with simplicity and humility. Next is the first female Ferengi in Star Trek, who starts us on a journey of change on Ferenginar that becomes a theme throughout the series. And finally, here’s a character who is downright fascinating despite the fact we never even see her on screen, but the sound of her voice is all we really need.

—

Caitlin – Found family

Lwaxana Troi

Liam Bilby and Chester

Tekeny Ghemor

Caitlin’s choices for DS9 characters are all complicated parental figures in their own ways, but like good mothers and fathers, they care for their flock and lead by example. We see a repeat from one of Caitlin’s faves from TNG, who has returned to show Odo a new side of herself. We also have a new sorta father figure for O’Brien when he temporarily infiltrates the Orion Syndicate just to have his heart broken a bit, and also Kira’s Cardassian sorta dad who treats her as he would his own daughter… who happens to have her face.

—

Chris – One day more to revolution

Michael Eddington

Aamin Marritza

Leck the Eliminator

“Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men?” Okay, that’s enough Les Misérables quoting for this post. Chris’s picks are all ready to fight for their beliefs, whether they be as leaders within the Maquis, resisting that Federation-Cardassian treaty that boned so many people; as a martyr making a statement about how his people need to be brought to justice for their cruel occupation of Bajor; or just as a normal guy who really loves killing for whatever reason you throw at him!

— We’re going to keep chilling here on the promenade, having a jumja stick, maybe dangling our legs over the second floor landing. There’s more in store for our Deep Space Nine friends next week when we’ll try to thwart our favorite villains of the series. So definitely keep your eyes here for that, keep up with all of our coverage over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts, and hop in a roundabout to join us on Facebook and Twitter. There will be no running on the promenade!

[small-witch-big-hat]

OH GOD I REMEMBER THE FIRST DEAD WOMAN. She was ONE EPISODE before they killed off Jadzia!

Captain Lisa Cusak (played by Debra Wilson) from "The Sound of Her Voice", she was the commanding officer of the USS Olympia which crashed on a deserted planet and left her as the only survivor. The Defiant picks up her distress signal, and they establish contact while they're taking the six day trip to rescue her - she is super insightful and thoughtful, and starts forming bonds with the crew while trying to make sure she can survive long enough for them to rescue her.

They rush and scramble and put the ship itself at risk to get there before her supplies run out, running it down to the deadline where they've got less than an hour to get her off planet and into a sickbay, and...

She's dead. She has been dead for three years. Due to the weirdness around the planet that destroyed her ship in the first place, all communications to and from her have been on a three year delay. She was dead long before her distress signal reached the Defiant. But at least she died knowing that people were trying to save her, and that she wasn't abandoned or forgotten.

It's a fucky episode. I love it, but it's painful.

Uh oh! Your counselor is the reason you need counseling! :(

I love Ezri, but like how does she even approach Jadzia in her counseling sessions lol. Also, this would have been funnier in ms paint :( Also also, ignore the shading, background hands, some of the faces the way the colors don't match the tone of the comic and the fact I forgot Worfs dumb chest belt thingy. Besides that, I quite like it <3

[usstrekart]

"The Sound of Her Voice" (S06E25, Stardate 51948.3) is a solid Trek reminder of the importance of communication - on all levels. Especially in tough times when we are dealing with so many things that take our energy and focus. That it is couched in a simple sc-fi concept makes it so much better for me.

I had a clear idea of what I wanted to feature in my episode poster for "The Sound of Her Voice" early on. Captain Lisa Cusak's worn and tatterd badge and uniform, waiting to be rescued.

[deepspacedukat]

Saddest ds9 episode (well one of) is “The Sound of Her Voice” not only because of the fact that you realize there was never any one of saving captain Lisa Cusak but you see how the war has pulled everyone apart and the foreshadowing of Dax’s death when O’Brian says one day we will wake up & someone will be missing from our circle but we don’t have to mourn alone. Did you know the cast didn’t meet the actress playing Lisa Cusak until after filming. Your thoughts friend?-Azora

OH MY GOD, THAT EPISODE MADE ME SOB. 😭 Lisa was so kind and helpful to the whole crew with their personal problems.

Also ??? For some reason I didn't put together that little bit of foreshadowing about Dax. God, that makes me even more emotional about the whole thing. *sobs*

Woah, really? Did they not? That's so cool! It really gives an air of authenticity to their performances and shows how good they are at their jobs.

Honestly, I really enjoyed that episode in an ow-that-hurt-my-heart kind of way. I can't put my finger on why, but I really felt that the writing in that episode was top notch. It just felt...right. Sad, but right. It has a painful ending, but it's an important episode to watch.

[stopthatbluecat]

It's nice that Lisa Cusak got hope and company in her final days tbqh. I'm glad for her in that respect.

[walkingstackofbooks]

I've never thought about it like that, but hard agree, actually... There are definitely characters I like *less* than Jadzia, but Odo, Quark or Worf dying would have taken away something essential I think.

Man, her death sucked so much though. I knew that Ezri Dax replaced Jadzia Dax at some point, but I didn't know when, so from season 5 onwards every episode where Jadzia was somewhat in danger was extremely tense. (But also excited, I guess, because I do like shows that makes me cry.)

I was absolutely CONVINCED she was going to die in Change of Heart, and while at the time I was relieved she didn't, I do really wish she had because /that/ - having to make the sacrifice for the Cardassian intel, having Work have to leave her - would have been an excellent way to go. Plus a midseason death would have been so much more gutting to see the immediate aftermath rather than have a time skip.

And I'm always going to be mad that Morn had a better send-off/funeral than she did in the episode where he faked his death. And Lisa Cusak too - the end of that episode had me convinced that whatever they did for Jadzia was going to be amazing, because they'd have to make it *better* than for a one-episode character but no. Sigh.

Jadzia dying was definitely sad (in the sense of unjust and poorly done) but, if I'm being honest, I went into DS9 with vague half remembered recollections of reading its tvtropes page once, misremembered it as being Kira who died, and was immeasurably relieved to be wrong

[lessattitudemorealtitude]

When you make ridiculously small connections between fandoms 

(The actress who plays Cere in JFO is in an episode of DS9, specifically in The Sound of Her Voice, the voice of the woman the Defiant’s is trying to save but it turns out she died 5 years previously)

[mannytoodope]

Rob: Hi, Marie.

Marie: Everything go alright?

 Rob: She just wanted to pick up some stuff.  No big thing.  A relief, actually.

Marie: God, I hate that time.  That pick-up stuff time.  I just went through that before I came here.  You know that song “Patsy Cline Times Two” I play?  That’s about me and my ex dividing up our record collections.

Rob: It’s a great song.

Marie Thank you. Rob: A while back, Dick and Barry and I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like…Books, records, films – these things matter.  Call me shallow but it’s the  real truth, and by this  measure, I was having one of the best dates of my life.

[weremustelidae]

why can't ds9 episodes ever have a happy ending. "We're answering a distress call for a survivor of a crash-landed ship! But she's low on supplies so we might not get there in time! Oh no!!" is a good enough plot/conflict on its own they did NOT need to add "Psych! The communications were actually travelling back and forth through time so the person we were going to rescue has been dead for years!" They could have just rescued the lady and gone home. my god.

[funnywormz]

i'm always a sucker for the idea of digital/electronic ghosts and the whispers of the dead coming through on radio waves and this episode is no exception. lisa was already dead for 3 years by the time they caught her distress call....... she was only ever a ghost............. but she still became their friend and got to hear the voices of people in her final hours. she was alone in body but not in spirit. they never got to see or touch each other and by the time they found her she was a dessicated corpse but they KNEW her. and she knew them. she was dead but she knew them.

it's like her lonely ghost was reaching out for company through the static and the void of space and she found someone. she listened to their problems and laughed with them and helped them through, even as the last echoes of who she was faded from reality forever. i like to think that when she closed her eyes for the last time she genuinely believed she was going to be rescued, that she would just sleep for a while and then be safe.

in a way, she wouldn't be wrong for thinking that either. lisa cusak was only ever a ghost, but they still carried her with them back up into the stars, and she was finally among friends once again

"the sound of her voice" is such a good ds9 episode i had forgotten how good it was.......... so funny and sweet and sad and haunting....................

[lionowlonao3]

SUMMARY:  Lisa Cusak encouraged everyone to take a long hard look at where their lives were going, and Worf was no exception.

For: @benicebefunny (it won’t let me tag you) for round 8 of the @trek-rarepair-swap

thanks to @prisdreamsbravely and @writhingbeneathyou for beta-reading.

[spockvarietyhour]

Defiant arrives at an uncharted planet following Captain Lisa Cusak’s distress signal, “The Sound of Her Voice”

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.19: Missions Reviewed, “Time’s Orphan,” “The Sound of Her Voice,” and “Tears of the Prophets.”

Keiko O’Brien has brought the kids back to DS9 finally, and they plan a long overdue family outing. Traveling to a small Bajoran colony world, they are having a delightful picnic when eight year old Molly finds herself inside a cave and in danger. Miles tries to save her, but she falls into a portal leftover from an extinct civilization and they realize she’s been thrown back in time.  The station sends help and they manage to send a transporter beam locked on to her DNA through the portal, but when they beam her back, ten years have passed for her, and Molly is now a feral 18 year old.  Back on the station, Bashir prescribes a series of methods to try to reconnect to her, but even her language skills have atrophied after a decade alone. Worf volunteers to help keep an eye on Kiarayoshi (the O’Brien’s son whom of course Kira delivered) as he wants to prove to Jadzia he can be a good father (meeting Alexander certainly has not helped with that). 

Molly starts to make some progress, and asks to go home. They take her back to her quarters, but she reacts badly until she sees a picture of them on the colony planet, and they realize she wants back into nature. They take her to a holosuite, which goes well until their time expires, and Molly becomes angry, assaulting several of Quark’s patrons. Starfleet orders the girl to a treatment facility where she won’t be a danger, but O’Brien instead decides to take her and steal a Runabout, returning her to the time portal and destroying it behind her. Odo initially catches them, but lets them go.

 They put older Molly back, but she arrives at the same time as her earlier self, and sends the eight-year-old version of herself back through the time portal, erasing her existence, but restoring her family. Worf meanwhile has decided he likes Yoshi despite some problems, and he and Jadzia decide he could be a father.

We waited until late in the season for our “Screw with O’Brien” episode, but indeed here it is. There are a few echoes of the fifth season “Children of Time” here (and in the next episode honestly) but overall this is an effective science fiction plot that serves as an nice analogy for families dealing with sick children, and what it takes to be a parent with the Worf story line. Worf coming at babysitting like it is a Warrior’s task is amusing, and all the more poignant very soon.  I am interested in where this time portal came from, as much of it seems a little reminiscent of the Guardian of Forever, though the control interface looks rather pointedly like the TARDIS console from Doctor Who.  

“The Sound of Her Voice” starts with Odo citing Quark for installing unsafe barstools and Quark deciding he has to come up with something to distract Odo so he can sell some elicit merchandise. 

 With Jake watching for “research” purposes, he pushes Odo to celebrate his one month “anniversary” with Kira to provide a distraction allowing him to move his goods.  Meanwhile the Defiant is tracking a Starfleet distress signal to a lone survivor, Captain Lisa Cusak, of the USS Olympia (PNW, Represent!) who is on a class J planet, trying to stay alive.  As they track her, the establish two way communications and to keep her company, each officer takes a turn talking to her. In their own way she begins to talk them each through problems they have experienced in their personal lives.  On DS9, Odo shifts the day of his “anniversary” date, and that means Quark’s client will be there while Odo is on patrol. Without Quark and Jake knowing Odo overhears Quark lament how bad the war has been on him, and how he would like some recognition for helping bring Odo and Kira together.  Odo abruptly goes back to his original plan, allowing Quark to operate. Odo tells Kira that he owes Quark one…but just one. The Defiant makes it to the planet and finds that the strange energy field that caused the Olympia to crash in the first place has acted as a time dilation effect, and Captain Cusak actually crashed three years ago, and her oxygen ran out then. Sisko brings her body back to DS9 and they throw an “Irish Wake” for her (which Worf comments seems like a very Klingon ritual) to remember the time they got to know her, and the advice she gave. 

O’Brien toasts the fact that one day, it will be one of them not standing in the circle, and they should enjoy each others’ company while they can. The camera flashes to Jadzia Dax.

Holy foreshadowing, Batman.  They do, they cut RIGHT to Jadzia when O’Brien laments one of them may die.  Dammit, what are you people trying to do to me? Beyond that, I was struck by the similar circumstances between this episode and “Children of Time:” a planet with an strange energy field around it which displaces things in time. Being caught up with season 2 of “Star Trek: Discovery” I am struck how much the character of Captain Cusak (whom we see only as a body, three years deceased) has a personality and wit that reminds me of Tig Notaro’s character of Jett Reno. I just kept imagining her on the planet, similar actually to the situation which the Discovery crew WILL end up saving Reno from following the Klingon War in 2257 (about 117 years before this episode). I am not sure though why NO ONE tried to look up records on the Olympia, even just to see what her crew compliment was to aid in the rescue, and don’t notice the three year discrepancy in timelines.  As a bit of reference, since Cusak discusses the Olympia being on an eight year mission and the ship crashed three years earlier, they Oly’s mission would have started roughly the same time the 1701D launched under Jean-Luc Picard, and she would have crashed roughly the same time the Voyager ended up in the Delta Quadrant.

“Tears of the Prophets” opens with Sisko receiving the Christopher Pike medal of valor and with Admiral Ross deciding Starfleet, Qo’Nos, and Romulus will invade Cardassian space, specifically to knock out a new type of weapon platform in the Chin’Toka system.  The Romulan senator on scene is initially resistant, but becomes convinced. 

Meanwhile Dax and Worf become public about deciding to have a child, and Dukat returns to the Dominion.  He has recovered the Pah-Wraith Kosst Amojan (last seen possessing Jake Sisko in the apocalypse Kai Winn cancelled in “The Reckoning”) and will use it to attack the wormhole. When Sisko prepares to leave to invade Cardassia, he receives a vision from the Prophets warning him not to go, but he defaults to his Starfleet duty. While the battle is being hard fought (with the weapons platforms coming online mid-fight) Dukat infiltrates DS9 with the Pah-Wraith to deliver it into the Orb on the station. 

In the sanctuary he finds Jadzia Dax, having a rare moment of religious curiosity, and blasts her with the Wraith’s power. The ancient being enters the orb, and the wormhole collapses. When the Defiant returns, Dukat is gone, and Worf arrives just in time to say goodbye to Jadzia; Bashir saved the symbiont, but could not save the host. The Celestial Temple collapsed, his friend dead, and Bajor looking to an Emissary who has suffered such major blows, Sisko decides to return to Earth for a time to clear his head.  Kira assumes command of DS9, and when she enters Sisko’s office, is heartbroken to see that Sisko does not know if he will return: Benjamin has taken his baseball with him.

The death of Dax is almost arbitrary and just a senseless tragedy, which I think makes it all the more affecting. You would have expected her warrior’s death, but the almost meaningless happenstance of being in the wrong place when Dukat appears just hurts.  Dramatically it is effective; the behind the scenes story about how Rick Berman treated Terry Farrell leading to this death is infuriating. I know Berman kept Trek alive a long time, but damn, am I glad he’s no longer affiliated, and Terry gets to be married to Leonard Nimoy’s son (no, seriously) and appear at conventions alongside Nicole De Boer whom we will meet next season as the new Dax host Ezri. Jadzia was an amazing character, and I will miss her as the show continues, but it is effective and visceral storytelling that brings us Ezri Dax. At least something good came out of Berman’s abuse, and Jadzia, as I rewatch, re-meet, and re-lose her 20 years later will ALWAYS be one of the best things about DS9 and Star Trek in general.  And SCREW YOU  Kai Winn! This Pah-Wraith  being on the lose is YOUR fault. Also, I really like David Birney as the Romulan here, wish we'd seen a little more of him!

NEXT VOYAGE: A broken Sisko receives a distant mysterious vision, and an old friend with a new face appears to help find the “Image in the Sand.”

[regina-cordium]

ive only heard her voice but i love lisa cusak

[longroadstonowhere]

god, i really hope lisa cusak survives to the end of this episode - i don’t care about seeing her, i just want her to live

[lala-sara]

DS: The Sound Of Her Voice

Gosh it looked like Julian wanted to come out on the wake but chickened out in the last second. Also - Garak is still going with them on Defiant or not? I’m always thinking about where he is when he wasn’t shown. Station is big but when he’s with Julian on Defiant it seems so intimate somehow. There are not enough fics with them two on Defiant. And talking about them did someone write a fic with Julian talking with Lisa about Garak yet? Lisa instantly seeing that he’s in love and giving advices on a subject... yum.