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May. 17th, 2015 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOK, the first ten episodes of Deep Space Nine's sixth season have not been quite as amazing as the ending of the fifth season, because, like ... what could be?
On the other hand, serialization and mirrorverse and fanfic episodes!
1. A Time to Stand
I don't actually remember a ton of what happened in this episode except the show VERY FIRMLY establishing that a.) YES, WAR IS THE STATUS QUO NOW, THIS IS A SERIALIZED SHOW, THIS IS HAPPENING and b.) Jake's noble effort to stay behind as an ACE REPORTER has been hilariously useless because nobody lets his reports go through anyway. Oh, Jake Sisko. <3 The harder you fail, the fonder I grow.
Oh, also, plot-wise, Sisko & friends go on another life-changing field trip with Garak to blow up some ketracel-white, which is majorly plot-important for the war, and then get stranded seventeen light-years away from the Federation.
DEBI: So now this half of the plot is Voyager, I guess?
BECCA: I mean, I'll laugh so hard if they don't get home for the rest of the season.
2. Rocks and Shoals
The Team Sisko half of this plot is a bit weird because it's like, "remember that very TOS-ish episode where a small crew is trapped on a desert-ish planet with a flirty Vorta and a bunch of Jem'Hadar? LET'S DO IT AGAIN except better!" So it is better, because there's no pointless subplot about the lingering death of a clearly doomed redshirt, and also we get Garak being Nog's awkward murder mentor after psychotically trying to kill him last season, which is AMAZING, more of that please! And also I do kind of appreciate the episodes where you're forced into uncomfortable sympathy with the Jem'Hadar, because I think we should be forced into sympathy with the Jem'Hadar, their lives suck. Also also, Keevan is kind of great as the world's most creepy languorous hipster Vorta. But all the same it was hard not to keep getting flashbacks to that other, inferior episode, especially since all 'trapped-on-a-planet' episodes appear to be shot on the same set of vaguely desert-y rocks.
Meanwhile, in the other half of the plot, Kira is forced to confront the fact that Sisko's 'lay low and play nice with the Dominion' strategy for Bajor pushes her into the despised role of collaborator i.e. the exact opposite of what she's done with her whole life. Which is super relevant for her character if un-fun to watch. :( I don't like seeing Kira be so stressed and morally uncertain. :( :( :(
3. Sons and Daughters
Debi and I basically spent this whole episode shouting "WHERE IS DAX?" All we wanted was a hilariously awkward 'hey, meet your dad's new fiancee!' scene with Dax and Worf and Alexander and WE NEVER GOT IT.
I mean the plot about Alexander and Worf reconciling and is fine too I guess.
I'm also kind of sad that Alexander and Ziyal are paralleled but never actually get to meet, because that would have been kind of great. Instead poor Ziyal spends this whole episode trying to get her dad and her fake space mom to reconcile, and Kira is just like "Ziyal, honey, if you're going to keep trying to hook me up with your dad, I CAN'T BE YOUR SPACE MOM ANYMORE" and it's very sad.
You know what else would have been great that I just realized now? If Kira had ever had a chance to introduce Ziyal to her fake Cardassian dad. Maybe while she was also introducing him to her fake human baby! God, that would have been a much better storyline than Ziyal hanging out with Garak. I'm retroactively angry at DS9 for this wasted potential.
4. Behind the Lines
This is the one where Odo's mom shows up and EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE.
OK, a little bit of a digression here: you know, as much as I like Rene Auberjonois' performance as Odo much of the time, I do really wonder how the show would have been different if Odo was played by a younger actor. I mean, I think there's a lot you can read into Odo's psychology about the fact that Odo, who can choose his appearance to some degree, does look and sound like a middle-aged person -- because from all timeline indications we've gotten, Odo is actually quite young, right? Dr. Mora is middle-aged and was presumably pretty well-established as a scientist by the time he found a baby hunk of goo and decided to raise it. We don't know how long he spends as a goo baby before leaving Dr. Mora's, but he hasn't been on the job that long when Kira shows up, so he's probably not any older than she is and in fact my guess would be younger. At the start of the series I think you could even easily make a case for late teens -- we don't have evidence for him being on the station more than five or six years before the start of the show, and I can't really picture him having hung out with Dr. Mora for more than ten years before deciding to zoom into Adult Mode and flounce off to get a job, can you? But he wants to look older. He wants that air of the middle-aged world-weary noir detective who's seen it all, and so that's what he projects.
And when you think of his story arcs as young person story arcs -- I mean, it makes sense right? He sees things in terms of black and white, JUSTICE and NOT JUSTICE, like young people do. He has a huge crush on Kira, and it is EVERYTHING, OH MY GOD, the most dramatic thing IN THE WORLD. He has a whole arc about dealing with his abusive dad, and now his mother figure -- equally abusive in a whole different and super creepy way -- shows up and starts to manipulate him in all kinds of gross ways, and, everything is horrible, and, like, of course he falls for it! He's a baby and has never had a non-abusive parent!
But he's played by Rene Auberjonois, with his gruff PI voice, so it's hard for the characters to see it that way and possibly hard for the writers to remember that too. Sisko has ace dad mentoring skills -- we see him pulling this out for Bashir and Kira and even sometimes Jadzia -- but he's not going to use them on someone who looks like fifty. I have no idea whether the writers actually know that with Odo they're always writing the story of an isolated, abandoned and abused child.
I guess what this boils down to is that I wish Odo could get a positive parent figure, ever.
...anyway, so Debi and I spend most of Odo and the Female Changeling's scenes covering our eyes and cringing. But the Resistance Cell stuff is great! Team Kira, Rom and Quark is an amazing team! Also, Dax gets promoted and has SO MUCH FUN leading missions, way to go Dax.
5. Favor The Bold
EVERYTHING WITH ODO AND HIS CHANGELING MOM IS STILL TERRIBLE AND GROSS.
...but much of the rest of the station plot is great! Things that are great:
- ROM ASKS QUARK TO JOIN THE RESISTANCE AND SAVE THE DAY, THIS IS AMAZING
- Jake Sisko FINALLY gets a message out through Morn, the one useful thing that he has ever done in this entire plotline
- OK everything about Odo's plot is hard to watch, but I'm at least glad that Quark and Kira, his two love interests, get to team up to try and shake him out of it
- Kira decks Damar to save Ziyal, which is kind of amazing, even if I have some questions about this whole plot, such as, ummm, hey, doesn't Dukat have like FIVE other kids besides Ziyal that he used to try and guilt Sisko about? Whatever happened to them?
- that said, not gonna lie, I really enjoy every scene of Weyoun and Damar and Dukat bitching at each other
- have I mentioned by the way how much I appreciate Damar? I think everyone appreciates Damar. Kira is just so relieved to have a straightforward Cardassian villain to exchange insults with who's not trying to make nice, it's VERY REFRESHING
Also, the Federation is going to attack? I'm not gonna lie, the Federation half of the plot is obviously crucial in terms of actual stuff happening, but much less interesting overall than all the stuff going on in the station plot. Even if it is gross.
6. Sacrifice of Angels
The thrilling conclusion of the six-episode serialization arc! O'Brien and Bashir unhelpfully quote British poetry at everyone! Kira, Jake and Leeta are arrested! Dukat drinks and pontificates delusionally on how SAD it is that the Bajorans never APPRECIATED him! QUARK AND ZIYAL RESCUE EVERYONE!
Sidenote: how great is Quark's genuine shock and horror at having to actually shoot somebody? I love Quark so much!
Odo FINALLY breaks out of his brainwashing haze and also turns up to save the day! This is nice but you know what would be even nicer: if he actually apologized to Rom, the person he directly got sentenced to death, instead of just to Kira! I realize I wrote a novel above about Odo's motivations but all the same I would like some more actual acknowledgment of direct responsibility and wrongdoing from Odo please!
OK, moving on! Sisko plays a brilliant game of chicken with the wormhole aliens!
WORMHOLE ALIENS: Sisko why are you about to have a suicidal war in the middle of the wormhole you know that annoys us >:(
SISKO: Look, we all know I'm your favorite human. And we all know if you don't provide some disappearance, your favorite human is going to be toast. I'm not TELLING you what to do. I'm just stating these facts.
Ziyal dies tragically! Dukat has a full-on breakdown and returns Sisko's baseball, because let us not forget that they are each other's number one nemesis, for ever and always! EVERYTHING IS VERY DRAMATIC.
7. You Are Cordially Invited
...and now we are back to DS9 status quo! I forgive DS9 a lot for the fact that we do actually get a scene with Alexander and Jadzia meeting here after all before everything is wacky Klingon wedding hijinks, which are almost cancelled in the middle because you can't have a wedding episode on TV without everyone deciding to call the whole thing off at least once.
In ongoing plot action, I can't decide how I feel about Kira and Odo's all-night bender in Jadzia's bathroom, because on the one hand, Jadzia opening up her door the next morning and finding Kira and Odo still drunkenly bonding is HILARIOUS, but on the other hand, not actually showing us that reconciliation is in fact a complete and total cop-out on the part of the DS9 writers and I'm kind of angry about it.
...but, I mean, I still laughed for a solid three minutes, so.
Meanwhile, somewhere out on the final frontier:
GEORDI: Oh man, Worf's getting married next year! This is gonna be great! I'm so excited to be at his bachelor party!
RIKER: Hell yeah!
WORF, BY E-MAIL: Hey dudes we moved up the wedding to next week, are you gonna make it?
RIKER: ... we are literally on the other side of the galaxy right now.
GEORDI: Dammit, Worf!
WORF: I can't believe nobody from the Enterprise showed up to my wedding. >:(
8. Resurrection
Mirrorverse Bareil shows up in DS9 as part of an Evil Mirrorverse Kira Long Con!
The great thing about this episode is how everyone loves probably-evil Mirrorverse Bareil so much better than Boring Original Flavor Bareil. Dax thinks he's amazing.. Quark literally shows up to be like "Hey, Kira, I mean, while I totally think the dude is planning something sinister, he's the least boring boyfriend you've ever had! Hope you crazy kids can make it work!"
Sadly, they do not make it work, because Bareil pulls the good old "I'LL ALWAYS BE EVIL AND YOU DESERVE BETTER" and bounces back to the Mirrorverse. Given how much I hated everything to do with Original Flavor Bareil, I'm a little disconcerted to be feeling like this is kind of a shame.
9. Statistical Probabilities
So this episode starts, and we're introduced to the Four Flavors of Less High-Functioning Genetically Engineered Savants, and Debi and I are both just BRACED for Very Special Episode impact.
And then ... it turns out it's not terrible? Bashir acts ethically!
(DEBI: Are you as weirded out as I am that Bashir is making ethical choices in this episode? Are we sure he's not actually a Changeling right now?
BECCA: I am not sure AT ALL.)
The question of whether to keep fighting in the face of near-impossible odds or to surrender and save lives is actually a really legitimate one! O'Brien spends the entire episode piqued and whiny and it's genuinely hilarious! The Four Flavors of Less High-Functioning Genetically Engineered Savants almost manage to become three-dimensional characters with agency! (Almost.) And Bashir doesn't sleep with any of them!
Also, the bit where they turn off the translator and use their knowledge of the Vorta language to analyze nuances that get elided in universal translation is awesome, wow, coolest bit of strategy maybe in the whole season.
I mean, when the episode gets distracted and goes off to chase all of these fun things, it does kind of leave the actual questions raised in the beginning of the episode about the treatment of these people in society completely un-dealt with in any satisfying way, but ... could have been worse? Could have been worse. I mean, I'll be happier if these people are ever referenced again, but.
10. The Magnificent Ferengi
This is the purest fanfic episode we've had in a long time, wow. It's Season Two all over again! Quark gets annoyed that everyone is gushing over the Federation for being war heroes, so when his mother is captured by the Dominion --
(Why is the Dominion capturing random Ferengi ships? How do they know that Quark's mother is relevant when her relationship with the Grand Nagus is totally secret?? Are the Ferengi even in this war??? SHHH DON'T ASK QUESTIONS)
-- he gets together a CRACK FERENGI TEAM to rescue her! Nothing about the plot makes sense. Nobody cares, because it's hilarious. At one point they accidentally kill a Vorta and then use Franken-technology to make him zombie-march through an abandoned Cardassian space station, because WHY NOT. My favorite part is probably Iggy Pop as the World's Most Done With Everything Vorta getting sound financial advice from Quark's mom. I really wanted her to adopt him and take him home to Ferenginar. I might have spent the rest of the episode quietly chanting "VORTA SON, VORTA SON." Look, it's a fanfic episode, NOTHING MATTERS AND YOU CAN'T JUDGE ME.
On the other hand, serialization and mirrorverse and fanfic episodes!
1. A Time to Stand
I don't actually remember a ton of what happened in this episode except the show VERY FIRMLY establishing that a.) YES, WAR IS THE STATUS QUO NOW, THIS IS A SERIALIZED SHOW, THIS IS HAPPENING and b.) Jake's noble effort to stay behind as an ACE REPORTER has been hilariously useless because nobody lets his reports go through anyway. Oh, Jake Sisko. <3 The harder you fail, the fonder I grow.
Oh, also, plot-wise, Sisko & friends go on another life-changing field trip with Garak to blow up some ketracel-white, which is majorly plot-important for the war, and then get stranded seventeen light-years away from the Federation.
DEBI: So now this half of the plot is Voyager, I guess?
BECCA: I mean, I'll laugh so hard if they don't get home for the rest of the season.
2. Rocks and Shoals
The Team Sisko half of this plot is a bit weird because it's like, "remember that very TOS-ish episode where a small crew is trapped on a desert-ish planet with a flirty Vorta and a bunch of Jem'Hadar? LET'S DO IT AGAIN except better!" So it is better, because there's no pointless subplot about the lingering death of a clearly doomed redshirt, and also we get Garak being Nog's awkward murder mentor after psychotically trying to kill him last season, which is AMAZING, more of that please! And also I do kind of appreciate the episodes where you're forced into uncomfortable sympathy with the Jem'Hadar, because I think we should be forced into sympathy with the Jem'Hadar, their lives suck. Also also, Keevan is kind of great as the world's most creepy languorous hipster Vorta. But all the same it was hard not to keep getting flashbacks to that other, inferior episode, especially since all 'trapped-on-a-planet' episodes appear to be shot on the same set of vaguely desert-y rocks.
Meanwhile, in the other half of the plot, Kira is forced to confront the fact that Sisko's 'lay low and play nice with the Dominion' strategy for Bajor pushes her into the despised role of collaborator i.e. the exact opposite of what she's done with her whole life. Which is super relevant for her character if un-fun to watch. :( I don't like seeing Kira be so stressed and morally uncertain. :( :( :(
3. Sons and Daughters
Debi and I basically spent this whole episode shouting "WHERE IS DAX?" All we wanted was a hilariously awkward 'hey, meet your dad's new fiancee!' scene with Dax and Worf and Alexander and WE NEVER GOT IT.
I mean the plot about Alexander and Worf reconciling and is fine too I guess.
I'm also kind of sad that Alexander and Ziyal are paralleled but never actually get to meet, because that would have been kind of great. Instead poor Ziyal spends this whole episode trying to get her dad and her fake space mom to reconcile, and Kira is just like "Ziyal, honey, if you're going to keep trying to hook me up with your dad, I CAN'T BE YOUR SPACE MOM ANYMORE" and it's very sad.
You know what else would have been great that I just realized now? If Kira had ever had a chance to introduce Ziyal to her fake Cardassian dad. Maybe while she was also introducing him to her fake human baby! God, that would have been a much better storyline than Ziyal hanging out with Garak. I'm retroactively angry at DS9 for this wasted potential.
4. Behind the Lines
This is the one where Odo's mom shows up and EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE.
OK, a little bit of a digression here: you know, as much as I like Rene Auberjonois' performance as Odo much of the time, I do really wonder how the show would have been different if Odo was played by a younger actor. I mean, I think there's a lot you can read into Odo's psychology about the fact that Odo, who can choose his appearance to some degree, does look and sound like a middle-aged person -- because from all timeline indications we've gotten, Odo is actually quite young, right? Dr. Mora is middle-aged and was presumably pretty well-established as a scientist by the time he found a baby hunk of goo and decided to raise it. We don't know how long he spends as a goo baby before leaving Dr. Mora's, but he hasn't been on the job that long when Kira shows up, so he's probably not any older than she is and in fact my guess would be younger. At the start of the series I think you could even easily make a case for late teens -- we don't have evidence for him being on the station more than five or six years before the start of the show, and I can't really picture him having hung out with Dr. Mora for more than ten years before deciding to zoom into Adult Mode and flounce off to get a job, can you? But he wants to look older. He wants that air of the middle-aged world-weary noir detective who's seen it all, and so that's what he projects.
And when you think of his story arcs as young person story arcs -- I mean, it makes sense right? He sees things in terms of black and white, JUSTICE and NOT JUSTICE, like young people do. He has a huge crush on Kira, and it is EVERYTHING, OH MY GOD, the most dramatic thing IN THE WORLD. He has a whole arc about dealing with his abusive dad, and now his mother figure -- equally abusive in a whole different and super creepy way -- shows up and starts to manipulate him in all kinds of gross ways, and, everything is horrible, and, like, of course he falls for it! He's a baby and has never had a non-abusive parent!
But he's played by Rene Auberjonois, with his gruff PI voice, so it's hard for the characters to see it that way and possibly hard for the writers to remember that too. Sisko has ace dad mentoring skills -- we see him pulling this out for Bashir and Kira and even sometimes Jadzia -- but he's not going to use them on someone who looks like fifty. I have no idea whether the writers actually know that with Odo they're always writing the story of an isolated, abandoned and abused child.
I guess what this boils down to is that I wish Odo could get a positive parent figure, ever.
...anyway, so Debi and I spend most of Odo and the Female Changeling's scenes covering our eyes and cringing. But the Resistance Cell stuff is great! Team Kira, Rom and Quark is an amazing team! Also, Dax gets promoted and has SO MUCH FUN leading missions, way to go Dax.
5. Favor The Bold
EVERYTHING WITH ODO AND HIS CHANGELING MOM IS STILL TERRIBLE AND GROSS.
...but much of the rest of the station plot is great! Things that are great:
- ROM ASKS QUARK TO JOIN THE RESISTANCE AND SAVE THE DAY, THIS IS AMAZING
- Jake Sisko FINALLY gets a message out through Morn, the one useful thing that he has ever done in this entire plotline
- OK everything about Odo's plot is hard to watch, but I'm at least glad that Quark and Kira, his two love interests, get to team up to try and shake him out of it
- Kira decks Damar to save Ziyal, which is kind of amazing, even if I have some questions about this whole plot, such as, ummm, hey, doesn't Dukat have like FIVE other kids besides Ziyal that he used to try and guilt Sisko about? Whatever happened to them?
- that said, not gonna lie, I really enjoy every scene of Weyoun and Damar and Dukat bitching at each other
- have I mentioned by the way how much I appreciate Damar? I think everyone appreciates Damar. Kira is just so relieved to have a straightforward Cardassian villain to exchange insults with who's not trying to make nice, it's VERY REFRESHING
Also, the Federation is going to attack? I'm not gonna lie, the Federation half of the plot is obviously crucial in terms of actual stuff happening, but much less interesting overall than all the stuff going on in the station plot. Even if it is gross.
6. Sacrifice of Angels
The thrilling conclusion of the six-episode serialization arc! O'Brien and Bashir unhelpfully quote British poetry at everyone! Kira, Jake and Leeta are arrested! Dukat drinks and pontificates delusionally on how SAD it is that the Bajorans never APPRECIATED him! QUARK AND ZIYAL RESCUE EVERYONE!
Sidenote: how great is Quark's genuine shock and horror at having to actually shoot somebody? I love Quark so much!
Odo FINALLY breaks out of his brainwashing haze and also turns up to save the day! This is nice but you know what would be even nicer: if he actually apologized to Rom, the person he directly got sentenced to death, instead of just to Kira! I realize I wrote a novel above about Odo's motivations but all the same I would like some more actual acknowledgment of direct responsibility and wrongdoing from Odo please!
OK, moving on! Sisko plays a brilliant game of chicken with the wormhole aliens!
WORMHOLE ALIENS: Sisko why are you about to have a suicidal war in the middle of the wormhole you know that annoys us >:(
SISKO: Look, we all know I'm your favorite human. And we all know if you don't provide some disappearance, your favorite human is going to be toast. I'm not TELLING you what to do. I'm just stating these facts.
Ziyal dies tragically! Dukat has a full-on breakdown and returns Sisko's baseball, because let us not forget that they are each other's number one nemesis, for ever and always! EVERYTHING IS VERY DRAMATIC.
7. You Are Cordially Invited
...and now we are back to DS9 status quo! I forgive DS9 a lot for the fact that we do actually get a scene with Alexander and Jadzia meeting here after all before everything is wacky Klingon wedding hijinks, which are almost cancelled in the middle because you can't have a wedding episode on TV without everyone deciding to call the whole thing off at least once.
In ongoing plot action, I can't decide how I feel about Kira and Odo's all-night bender in Jadzia's bathroom, because on the one hand, Jadzia opening up her door the next morning and finding Kira and Odo still drunkenly bonding is HILARIOUS, but on the other hand, not actually showing us that reconciliation is in fact a complete and total cop-out on the part of the DS9 writers and I'm kind of angry about it.
...but, I mean, I still laughed for a solid three minutes, so.
Meanwhile, somewhere out on the final frontier:
GEORDI: Oh man, Worf's getting married next year! This is gonna be great! I'm so excited to be at his bachelor party!
RIKER: Hell yeah!
WORF, BY E-MAIL: Hey dudes we moved up the wedding to next week, are you gonna make it?
RIKER: ... we are literally on the other side of the galaxy right now.
GEORDI: Dammit, Worf!
WORF: I can't believe nobody from the Enterprise showed up to my wedding. >:(
8. Resurrection
Mirrorverse Bareil shows up in DS9 as part of an Evil Mirrorverse Kira Long Con!
The great thing about this episode is how everyone loves probably-evil Mirrorverse Bareil so much better than Boring Original Flavor Bareil. Dax thinks he's amazing.. Quark literally shows up to be like "Hey, Kira, I mean, while I totally think the dude is planning something sinister, he's the least boring boyfriend you've ever had! Hope you crazy kids can make it work!"
Sadly, they do not make it work, because Bareil pulls the good old "I'LL ALWAYS BE EVIL AND YOU DESERVE BETTER" and bounces back to the Mirrorverse. Given how much I hated everything to do with Original Flavor Bareil, I'm a little disconcerted to be feeling like this is kind of a shame.
9. Statistical Probabilities
So this episode starts, and we're introduced to the Four Flavors of Less High-Functioning Genetically Engineered Savants, and Debi and I are both just BRACED for Very Special Episode impact.
And then ... it turns out it's not terrible? Bashir acts ethically!
(DEBI: Are you as weirded out as I am that Bashir is making ethical choices in this episode? Are we sure he's not actually a Changeling right now?
BECCA: I am not sure AT ALL.)
The question of whether to keep fighting in the face of near-impossible odds or to surrender and save lives is actually a really legitimate one! O'Brien spends the entire episode piqued and whiny and it's genuinely hilarious! The Four Flavors of Less High-Functioning Genetically Engineered Savants almost manage to become three-dimensional characters with agency! (Almost.) And Bashir doesn't sleep with any of them!
Also, the bit where they turn off the translator and use their knowledge of the Vorta language to analyze nuances that get elided in universal translation is awesome, wow, coolest bit of strategy maybe in the whole season.
I mean, when the episode gets distracted and goes off to chase all of these fun things, it does kind of leave the actual questions raised in the beginning of the episode about the treatment of these people in society completely un-dealt with in any satisfying way, but ... could have been worse? Could have been worse. I mean, I'll be happier if these people are ever referenced again, but.
10. The Magnificent Ferengi
This is the purest fanfic episode we've had in a long time, wow. It's Season Two all over again! Quark gets annoyed that everyone is gushing over the Federation for being war heroes, so when his mother is captured by the Dominion --
(Why is the Dominion capturing random Ferengi ships? How do they know that Quark's mother is relevant when her relationship with the Grand Nagus is totally secret?? Are the Ferengi even in this war??? SHHH DON'T ASK QUESTIONS)
-- he gets together a CRACK FERENGI TEAM to rescue her! Nothing about the plot makes sense. Nobody cares, because it's hilarious. At one point they accidentally kill a Vorta and then use Franken-technology to make him zombie-march through an abandoned Cardassian space station, because WHY NOT. My favorite part is probably Iggy Pop as the World's Most Done With Everything Vorta getting sound financial advice from Quark's mom. I really wanted her to adopt him and take him home to Ferenginar. I might have spent the rest of the episode quietly chanting "VORTA SON, VORTA SON." Look, it's a fanfic episode, NOTHING MATTERS AND YOU CAN'T JUDGE ME.
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no subject
Date: 2015-05-17 05:07 pm (UTC)I understand it was a passing bit of awesomeness, but I like the sound of this so much.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-18 09:44 am (UTC)I want an in-universe explanation about why some Klingon phrases don't translate. Are Klingons off-planet always speaking the Federation Lingua-Franca because of a religious/cultural distaste for translators, so Klingon is forbidden from translation? Is non-translated "Klingon" a dead language like Latin that isn't IN the UT?
I just want every day complexities to spring from the fact that everyone is actually speaking and hearing a different language from the viewers and from each other.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-18 12:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-18 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-18 01:38 pm (UTC)I think they do.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 01:59 am (UTC)...I probably will not get it, but THAT'S WHAT I WANT.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 02:04 am (UTC)I do like to imagine an Odo who was played by, like. Someone Anton Yelchin's age or something. Someone who couldn't actually successfully hide his naivete and lack of understanding behind a Gruff Authority Figure Mask. But then he probably wouldn't have his job, so the question is moot.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 02:17 am (UTC)One of the aliens determines to try to break the communication barrier, and over the course of the episode we as the audience begin to LEARN THEIR ALLUSIONS by deducing their meaning through context, until we can begin to SPEAK THIS LANGUAGE after taking a break to listen to Patrick Stewart recite passages from the epic of Gilgamesh by firelight.
It is the best episode.
no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 02:48 am (UTC)What are the rest of Team Savant like?
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Date: 2015-05-19 02:57 am (UTC)I love the chapter in Diane Duane's Spock's World (1988) where Sarek and Amanda fall in love while arguing over translations.
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Date: 2015-05-19 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 04:08 am (UTC). . . Neal Cassady in space?
no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-19 04:15 am (UTC)Welp.