(no subject)

[skygiants]

So Debi and I are still slowly watching Deep Space Nine.


9. The Passenger

Bashir earnestly runs around trying to figure out who has been possessed by a criminal before realizing, surprise, it is Bashir who has been possessed! We watched this before I went to Colombia, so all I can remember now is rolling on the floor laughing shrieking at Debi "he's ACTING!" while Alexander Siddig earnestly attempted to exercise his evil character acting chops.

10. Move Along Home

This is the one where everyone gets sucked into being GAME PIECES in a GAME OF HUMAN CHESS in which they have to move through a MYSTERIOUS FANTASTICAL ENVIRONMENT and solve PUZZLES in order to survive, while SINISTER ALIENS LAUGH AT THEM ANNOYINGLY! This is my favorite kind of episode, it was amazing. Extra amazing: Kira storming around through the entire thing being ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DONE WITH THIS. Debi and I decided that they probably give everyone special training on dealing with these wacky surreal Q-type shenanigans in Starfleet Academy. Sadly, Kira, not being a member of Starfleet, did not get any of the special training.

Also, Quark asks Odo to blow on his gambling dice for luck, and I don't even know what the writing staff thinks they are doing anymore.

11. The Nagus

The one where Wally Shawn guest stars as a Ferengi! Wouldn't it be nice if the show would occasionally commit to taking the Ferengi seriously instead of having a whole species as one long running joke?

This is also the one where Clo'Brien teaches school -- it has to be a Clo'Brien, and probably a Clo'Brien way down in the clone chain, because all the other O'Briens have ACTUAL ENGINEERING TO DO -- and Sisko not only highly speciesist but deeply ineffectual about dealing with his son's friendship with Nog. See, if Sisko were a smart parent, instead of complaining about Nog all the time, he would invite him to dinner and on vacation with them! KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS.

However, instead of listening to my excellent parenting advice, Sisko takes parenting advice from Dax, who says herself that this is a terrible idea. On the other hand, the scene where Dax sends Sisko chasing off after Jake and then cheerfully steals his dinner is the best Dax scene yet.

12. The Vortex

A Gamma Quadrant convict tells a lot of lies about knowing Odo's people. This episode was deeply disappointing for me, because Odo comes this close to being forced to adopt a teenage daughter, which would have been AMAZING. Can you imagine? Odo and Sisko swapping terrible parenting advice!

Sadly, what actually happens is this:

CONVICT: I was wrongfully imprisoned, you must let me escape!
ODO: Whatever the personal circumstances, it is my duty to deliver you to justice!
CONVICT: Fine! Then you must promise me to take care of my daughter for me.
ODO: . . . . okay, change of plan, I am perfectly willing to let you escape as long you promise I am not going to have to take care of ANY CHILDREN OH GOD. @___@

So he dumps them on a passing Vulcan freighter instead. Apparently it's really easy to immigrate to Vulcan. Debi and I decided this is because nobody actually wants to immigrate to Vulcan because they're all really patronizing there.

13. Battle Lines

Sisko & Co. take the Bajoran Pope-equivalent on a joyride, promptly crash land on a Horrible Convict Planet of Eternally Battling Horribleness, and spend the rest of the time mentally screaming at each other "OH SHIT WE KILLED THE POPE." At the end it turns out the Pope is not really dead, but decides to stay and be a missionary on Horrible Convict Planet of Horribleness. What this probably means is that within two years, there will be forty Bajoran nuns building a temple there; within five years Horrible Convict Planet of Horribleness will have developed a huge trade in religious tourism; and within fifty years Bajoran missionaries will have become the most energetic religious force in the Gamma Quadrant.

We think that this was supposed to be an episode about Kira and her war trauma, but then they got too excited about Horrible Convict Planet of Horribleness and Sisko's earnest efforts to promote diplomacy and forgot to actually focus on Kira. (Sisko is always really excited to do some diplomacy and She does have one really nice scene with her Pope, though.

14. The Storyteller

O'Brien -- or possibly a Clo'Brien -- has to take a life-changing field trip with Bashir to a small village where he is immediately decreed to be the Chosen One, and proceeds to have the worst day ever. Bashir, meanwhile, has the best day ever. I am dubious about the plot, but I really enjoy the fact that O'Brien hates Bashir at the beginning of the episode and he hates him EVEN MORE by the end.

Meanwhile, Jake and Nog hit on a fourteen-year-old war leader, and for the first time we notice how truly hideous teen fashions on Deep Space Nine really are. Lime green bodysuits, Jake? Why? WHY?

15. Progress

An actual Kira episode! Kira accidentally adopts a cranky old farmer as her dad while trying to remove him forcibly from his house. It's not exactly a subtle episode, but I'm happy enough to see more pickup on the "Kira Is Now Part of the Establishment And Is Having Trouble Coping" theme that I don't really care.

Also, first incidence of Kira-Dax girl talk!

Comments

[kd7sov]

"Battle Lines" is, as far as I recall, not followed up on in show-canon. In the sequel books, though, it forms a major foundation for saving the galaxy... at least twice, I think?

(These sequel books, incidentally, seem to have been the start of the current trend toward continuity in the Trek novelverse. Which is not to say coherence, necessarily; anything where the Borg eat Pluto has trouble being called coherent.)

[skygiants]

Debi has a hazy memory that we see Bajoran Pope again at some point, but I could be wrong! I am curious to see how and if anything happens with that, in a larger universe-building context; maybe I will look up the books if it turns out never to come up again.

(What! Continuity in the Trek novelverse? I didn't think that was allowed!)

[kd7sov]

Maybe? It's been a while since I did any kind of dedicated rewatch. I know there's drama down the line with a different Bajoran Pope who [spoiler], but it's possible this one shows up again too.

(It wasn't! And then this set of authors decided to do an eighth season of DS9 in novel form, and other stuff started tying into that, and suddenly it was!)

[skygiants]

(Whoa! Well, thank you for the heads-up for things to investigate whenever it is we actually finish the show. :D)

[thirdblindmouse]

Also, Quark asks Odo to blow on his gambling dice for luck, and I don't even know what the writing staff thinks they are doing anymore.

I know, right?! Garak/Bashir was not the only slash going down on company time.

Ah, Jake's outfits. I think they are DS9's way of emphasizing how alien the Federation should be to 20th century earthlings, because it is hard to imagine a world where they would be considered fashionable.

[skygiants]

Garak has as of yet only appeared in one episode! I guess they needed something to fill in the gap before he returns?

I have this problem now where one of my part-time jobs involves preserving recordings of modern dance performances, and ALL THE COSTUMES now look to me like Starfleet uniforms. And vice versa. Which is to say, I am pretty sure DS9 did all their wardrobe shopping at the nineties equivalent of dancewearsolutions.com, and now I REALLY REALLY WANT the all-ballet episode.

[nextian]

Hahaha, yes, there's a lot of stuff in s1 where they hadn't really... learned how... to act yet. Any of them. It definitely improves, though, not just on a storytelling level but also on the actors' individual levels. I'm just about to hit s4, which is where everyone agrees that the show is good from, and it's been a really shocking rise in quality, considering that I uncritically (well, campily and with very low standards and while on codeine, but totally) loved the early stuff.

[skygiants]

I am glad to hear the acting gets better; I mean, it's endearing! I'm super enjoying it! But we keep sort of looking at each other and being like, "is this just how the nineties . . . were? Was this what acting meant then? FASCINATING HOW OUR DEFINITIONS SHIFT."

Also, dude, you have zoomed through this! I hope you enjoy looking back from your advanced position at my molasses-slow progress.

[nextian]

I found it helped to think of it as a summer stock production of Trek, and each year the repertory got a little more serious. It's so theatrical. There are so many weird pauses.

And yeah, I got dental surgery, so it was DS9 or TNG, really, and I'm sorry, but TNG is the most boring thing I have ever put in my eyes in its early days.

[skygiants]

ACCURATE. And they are all trying so hard and so earnestly! Sisko, especially, which works as an in-character thing; like, at this point, it is clearly Sisko's dream in life to be a serious diplomat facilitating serious political talks LIKE AN ADULT (in . . . strong opposition to previous Trek captains), and everyone is constantly disappointing him because NOBODY EVER ACTS LIKE AN ADULT in real life. Sisko really misses his Model UN club, is what I am saying.

Ha, I had tons of TNG pass vaguely through my consciousness in the background as a child, but the only episode I have actually seriously seen and paid attention to is the Gilgamesh Metaphor Episode which we watched in my Intro Humanities class first year in college. TNG is therefore now always part of a misguided but well-meaning Humanities 101 curriculum in my head.

[greenygal]

it is clearly Sisko's dream in life to be a serious diplomat facilitating serious political talks LIKE AN ADULT (in . . . strong opposition to previous Trek captains)

No, Picard likes that, too. (Well, partly anyway. I mean, he did join Starfleet and not the Federation diplomatic corps; he likes weird space phenomena too.) I think Sisko's problem is that he hasn't done a lot of first contact; Picard would have been disappointed that the first Gamma Quadrant culture to make formal contact just wanted to go to Quark's and gamble, but he wouldn't be distressed about it.

[skygiants]

The other thing though is that -- okay, my experience with TNG is not huge, as I have explained above, but my impression of Picard is that he is totally willing to saunter in and act like an asshole when occasion demands. Whereas Sisko so far is basically just in Frustrated Dad Mode all the time. Like, he's always one second away from telling everyone around this diplomatic table to GO TO THEIR ROOM until they can NEGOTIATE IN GOOD FAITH, dammit!

[greenygal]

Picard is totally happy to do that. On the other hand Picard never blackmailed somebody into staying on his ship by threatening to jail a family member, so it's not like Sisko is not willing to do that ever.

[greenygal]

The Ferengi characters get to be serious a fair amount; Nog in particular has a lot of character growth coming to him. The Ferengi as a species...maybe not so much. (That said, I find "The Nagus" actually funny, unlike a lot of other Ferengi-centered episodes.)

[skygiants]

Well, the other problem is that Ferengi, like most Star Trek alien species, are basically universalized; everyone knows this and that about Ferengi, and it's not really . . . questioned? Or at least it hasn't been so far. Which is kind of problematic!

I am still shocked that I didn't immediately recognize the actual Nagus as Wally Shawn. I spent the entire episode going "Why am I so entranced by this voice? I DON'T UNDERSTAND."

[darchildre]

IIRC, there are moments later on where Quark (and sometimes Garak), as our main representative of a non-Federation species, gets to point out how the way the Federation relates to non-Federation species (and, in Quark's case, the Ferengi in particular) is, indeed, problematic.

However, I also kinda feel like these moments never actually happen in Ferengi-centric episodes, which are almost always played for comedy.

[skygiants]

"Look at this weirdo culture with its wacky totally off-kilter morals!" I mean, I find it deeply plausible that the Federation would be super problematic about this, but there is a difference between the Federation buying into it and the show itself buying into it.

[https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlVq9OsGLXXqOTwTYAeQAxmwYslmMRv5Lw]

Quark is CONSTANTLY pointing out how racist the federation are to him and his people. It's terrific. He loves to point out how we're huge hypocrites.

I kind of love the Ferengi - on one level, they're sort of ridiculous parodies. They never stop being funny. But on the other hand... I love how seriously they are willing to take their stupid culture. Like, greed is literally their core religious value. The nagus is like Pope Ben Bernake, and an IRS audit is equivalent to an excommunication. At one point, Quark is literally willing to die rather than let that happen. And every time they get more ridiculous, Quark is there to say "Shame on you, you high and mighty humans, who think your culture is the only one worthy of respect."

[skygiants]

Quark loves to point it out, but does the show expect us to take it seriously? So far I'm not convinced it does -- and, I mean, I want it to. I want the show to take it seriously and to take the Ferengi seriously, even if the characters don't. I would kind of love an episode -- even just one! -- where they did stop being funny.

[tree_and_leaf]

What this probably means is that within two years, there will be forty Bajoran nuns building a temple there; within five years Horrible Convict Planet of Horribleness will have developed a huge trade in religious tourism; and within fifty years Bajoran missionaries will have become the most energetic religious force in the Gamma Quadrant.

Heh. Yes, this.

[skygiants]

I almost want to write fic about this, except upthread someone assures me that it already exists in Star Trek novel form.

[tree_and_leaf]

REally? I might have to get hold of it.

[kd7sov]

Indeed. Rising Son is the book in question. (And possibly some of the later ones; I haven't had opportunity to reread most of them in a long time.) For best results, read the Avatar duology first, then the Mission Gamma tetralogy, then Rising Son. There's some other stuff that falls between and occasionally gets referenced, but that's the core story.

[tree_and_leaf]

Thank you!

[katta]

Yay, more DS9! I should continue my own rewatch so I can keep up. (At the moment I'm trying to watch "From Here to Eternity", but I keep pausing it because it's JUST NOT INTERESTING and so I've only watched 20 minutes.)

I always felt that the alien game from "Move Along Home" would be great fun to play if you knew what was going on and that you weren't going to die.

[skygiants]

You should! We go super slow, it's easy to keep up. :D

AND YEAH I would so play that game! I mean, maybe minus the hordes of aliens showing up to laugh at you every time you screwed up, because that would get really irritating after a while.

[bookblather]

WALLY SHAWN IS MY FOREVER FAVORITE. And also, O'Brien hating everyone. Like. He is 500% done with their shit. HE JUST WANTS TO BE LEFT ALONE TO FIX THE DAMN STATION, KISS KEIKO, AND HAVE THE MOST ADORABLE CHILD EVER. Gawd.

[skygiants]

O'BRIEN HAS ENOUGH TO DO WITHOUT PUTTING UP WITH YOUR "WACKY EPISODE PLOTS," DEEP SPACE NINE. He's so angry every time Sisko asks him to do anything off-planet! Do you KNOW how many vending machines need to be fixed on DS9. DO YOU.

[bookblather]

well if a CERTAIN SOMEONE would STOP BREAKING THE GLASS every time the machine eats his money, AHEM [SPOILERY CHARACTER], that would be nice.

[batyatoon]

I swear, someday I will cosplay as Kai Opaka. I AM THE RIGHT HEIGHT AND EVERYTHING.

[skygiants]

Ha! Okay, I'm not kidding, when Kai Opaka first showed up, Debi turned to me and said, "Does she remind you of Batya, or is it just because of the height and the headgear?"

So in other words: YES. DO IT.