(no subject)

[skygiants]

We're done with season six of Deep Space Nine! I am kind of having difficulty adjusting to the fact that we only have one more season to go? WHAT A STRANGE CONCEPT.

That said despite the fact that this episode DEFINITELY includes the worst DS9 episode ever, like, it's almost impossible for me to conceive of an episode worse than this.

Anyway!


19. In the Pale Moonlight

OK, it's kind of unfair for me to call out the worst episode over the cut without also mentioning that this batch includes probably one of the best episodes. Sorry, In The Pale Moonlight, I wronged you!

In the Pale Moonlight is the one where Sisko teams up with Garak for some moderately unethical diplomatic manipulation that soon escalates to highly unethical and then all the way up to HELLA UNETHICAL. It is a very dark, but extremely good episode that does exactly what it sets out to do, which is a.) poke harder at the blithe portrayal of Federation ideals than Star Trek has ever poked before and b.) let Avery Brooks roll out his very best tormented monologue while appearing in progressively less clothing.

DEBI: So what's the title of the episode quoting? "Dance with the devil in the pale moonlight --" Batman uses it too, so it must be pretty well known, but I can't remember the origin!
BECCA: Me either!
DEBI: I'm gonna look it up! ....welp, it's just Batman. This is just Deep Space Nine quoting Batman.
BECCA: Does that make Garak the Joker?
DEBI: No, it makes Garak the Devil. Does that make Sisko Batman?
BECCA: But I always thought Odo was Batman ...

It's a very good title! BUT AN IMPERFECT METAPHOR.

As a sidenote, this is also the episode where the Dominion invades Betazed, and I feel deeply cheated that we did not get and will never get an episode of Lwaxana Troi leading the resistance against the invaders, because come on!

20. His Way

...OK, look, I've been behind Kira/Odo all the way since their very first noir backstory episode, so I wish this episode about them finally getting together was ... better ...? A faux-Frank-Sinatra holosuite program takes Odo under his holographic wing to teach him seduction tactics from the 1940s. Protip: these are not good seduction tactics.

Then he makes a fake Kira for Odo to practice on, and that just escalates all the way up from 'unfortunate' to 'super creepy.'

I don't really blame Odo too much for this regrettably successful fiasco, because, as aforementioned, Odo is really just a confused nonhuman twenty-year-old in the fake body of a fifty-something man and doesn't know any better. SOMEBODY NEEDED TO INTERVENE. Unfortunately, the person best qualified to intervene here is ... Kira ......

The music was fun though?

21. The Reckoning

Things I really liked about this episode:
- watching Sisko and Kai Winn go up against each other on matters of Bajoran policy is always just really fun to watch. JESUS VS. THE POPE!
- watching Starfleet officers get really weirded out when Sisko goes full Jesus is also super fun to watch
- I am very proud of Odo for respecting Kira's wishes and letting her be possessed by a religious entity if it's emotionally significant to her. A+ boyfriending, Odo, keep it up!

Things I don't know how to feel about in this episode:
- Sisko going full Abraham (a break from full Jesus!) and letting Jake be potentially sacrificed for the epic alien battle cause

Things I wish this episode contained:
- more exploration of how Jake feels about his dad being Jesus, because what little we get is always fascinating, and, like ... if I was Jake, I would not have been as cool with how that episode played out! I would maybe have some issues! But they will probably never be explored again. ALAS.

22. Valiant

I understand from the Internet that some people really don't like Valiant? We loved Valiant. Jake and Nog are going on a diplomatic field trip to Ferenginar (which, by the way, Jake and Nog Have Adventures On Ferenginar is also an episode I would DESPERATELY love to see) when they run into trouble and get picked up by a teen adventure show about plucky teen Starfleet cadets who were out on a training mission when war broke out and have decided to keep going and COMPLETE THE MISSION!

Nog is immediately like 'this is the AWESOMEST THING EVER, SIGN ME UP' and Jake is like '...this is a war and we are children and this is a BAD IDEA ALL AROUND.'

(What Jake doesn't say: "What about our diplomatic mission on Ferenginar?" What about your diplomatic mission on Ferenginar, Nog? The diplomatic mission you were sent on, as the only Ferengi Starfleet officer? Isn't that ... kind of important ......?" THAT MIGHT HAVE HAD A BETTER IMPACT.)

Anyway, there's all kinds of really interesting, meaty stuff in this episode, about, like, the Starfleet mentality, and this flawed idea of heroism, and Nog's determination to transform himself into the Greatest Starfleet Officer Ever! and Jake's arc as he consistently puts himself further and further away from the whole military mindset because he finds it increasingly creepy. It's a very good episode!

DEBI: ...so isn't this whole thing with the Plucky Crew of Cadets basically the same exact plot as the Star Trek reboot movie?
BECCA: And that's why this show is so much better than that film.

23. Profit and Lace

BECCA: Oh, cool, a Ferengi title! I used to be annoyed by Ferengi episodes, but a lot of the recent Ferengi episodes have been really good, I'm excited!

[FIVE MINUTES LATER]

DEBI: Becca, you jinxed it! You jinxed it.

WORST. DEEP SPACE NINE. EPISODE EVER. "How many offensive, stereotypical, transphobic tropes can we fit into one wacky cross-dressing comedy episode?" "ALL OF THEM!"

I'm even more offended because the last cross-dressing Ferengi episode ("Rules of Acquisition") was so much fun, and partook of so many good cross-dressing tropes. This is the POLAR OPPOSITE of that.

24. Times Orphan

Molly gets accidentally sent to the past and returns an aged-up feral child! Nobody gets her any professional therapy, nor do they get her parents professional therapy, nor does anyone consult any experts on the situation at all. Instead, they decide the only solution is to send her back, alone, as a teenager, to the feral past that she got trapped in, because obviously she was happier there, while Debi and I scream "THIS IS TERRIBLE PARENTING" at the screen.

Fortunately, this is a bog-standard O'Brien Suffers episode, so everything gets reset at the end and Molly is fine! OKAY.

Between this and the episode where Odo's abusive father comes to teach him how to take care of his new Changeling blob baby, I am concerned about the notions the Deep Space Nine writers seem to have about effective parenting. They get it so right with Sisko! How do they get it so wrong everywhere else??

On the bright side, Worf and Jadzia have an adorable babysitting subplot where Worf bonds with the Littlest O'Brien and it's FANTASTIC. A whole episode of this please! On the less bright side, we know that the only reason we're getting this is because Jadzia is dying in two episodes and they want to make it maximumly angstful, which takes away some of the shine. >:(

25. The Sound Of Her Voice

Poor Kasidy! She finally gets to show up for an episode in which Sisko does more than hallucinate, pass out, and babble in a Jesus-like fashion, and he spends the whole time giving her the cold shoulder because he's weirded out that she's invading his personal military space. I love Sisko, and I love Kasidy, but I have concerns about this relationship.

Anyway! This is the one where they establish a radio connection from a woman who's trapped on a planet, and Bashir and Sisko and O'Brien all take turns baring their souls to her, and when they get there it turns out they're too late to save her life, which was inevitable, but that she was also back in time like six months from them anyway, which seems ... like kind of a pointless reveal ...? I'm not sure what the purpose of that was.

In the B-plot, Quark attempts to outwit Odo while Jake lurks in the background serving hilariously little purpose. I'm OK with this! In fact, I wish Deep Space Nine involved like 50% more of Jake lurking in the background of unrelated plots serving hilariously little purpose. It just adds a certain something.

26. Tears of the Prophets

Jadzia dies. We knew this was going to be the one where Jadzia died. NONETHELESS.

In other news, Dukat shows back up at Cardassian Headquarters for more hilarious Sisko-focused nemesis-ing:

DUKAT: Hey guys guess what, I am BACK and I have a plan that's going to make Sisko MISERABLE!
WEYOUN: ...Dukat, the point of us being here is to win the war...?
DUKAT: Oh, yeah, it'll definitely do that too.

[THIRTY MINUTES LATER]

DUKAT: Well, that plan was a rousing success! :D
WEYOUN: What do you mean?? that plan was less than useless as far as the war effort went, we lost a valuable military base and the wormhole is completely shut!
DUKAT: Yes, but I made Sisko kind of depressed, and that's good enough. :D

At the end of Season Six, I am angry about two thing: Jadzia's death (I know, I know, Terry Farrell wanted to leave the show, I'm still mad) and the massive wasted opportunity involved in the word 'Profits' and 'Prophets.' So many titles involving one or the other of these words, and NOT ONCE has this pun been made! Come on, DS9 writers!

Comments

[sovay]

I'm even more offended because the last cross-dressing Ferengi episode ("Rules of Acquisition") was so much fun, and partook of so many good cross-dressing tropes. This is the POLAR OPPOSITE of that.

So I know I'll be sorry about the answer to half this question, but having never seen either episode: can I ask what went right/wrong? Other than "offensive, stereotypical, transphobic," obviously; those don't really have a "right" mode.

[skygiants]

Oh, God, I've tried to forget as much as possible already, but some highlights:
- gender reassignment surgery for schemes and giggles!
- as soon as Quark 'is a woman,' he immediately gets emotional, soft-spoken, and sensitive about his looks!
- jokes about how Quark's brother, the sweet and soft-spoken one, is so much more in touch with his feminine side because he can imitate a female seductive walk!
- high-lariously lecherous old man falls in high-larious insta-love with Quark and sexually harasses him all around the fourth act, because OF COURSE

I COULD GO ON. I won't. But I could.

I mean, it's the basic problem with female-crossdressing-as-male plots vs. male-crossdressing-as-female plots, which is that when the humor is focused on how ridiculous it is that women have to dress like men to achieve their goals, and how ridiculous masculinity is in general, it's funny because it's punching up; and when the humor is focused on 'lol a dude has to dress like a girl, so embarrassing for him! ha ha!' it's very emphatically punching down.

[sovay]

I mean, it's the basic problem with female-crossdressing-as-male plots vs. male-crossdressing-as-female plots

I should have been clearer that I was asking for information about both episodes, but I think this answers my question. Dammit.

Oh, also:

gender reassignment surgery for schemes and giggles!

Whaaaaaaat.

[edit] On the bright side, I just watched "Rules of Acquisition" and it's great. Sort of the screwball caper version of Twelfth Night I didn't realize the world needed. I'm really sorry they didn't keep Pel as a recurring character at least; the actor is really talented. "I guess if I can't have you, I'll take those ten bars of latinum after all."

[edit edit] Also it contains that narrative thing I love where comic characters turn out to be more complex people than they have heretofore appeared or been allowed to be. Quark has an actual cultural conflict over his Ferengi traditionalism and his attraction to Pel: the very qualities that make her such an attractive (business) partner are the reasons he cannot envision them in a (romantic) relationship, emotional attachment and apparent physical chemistry notwithstanding; it's a genuine loss for both of them, and somewhat unexpectedly for Quark, but it's not some kind of idiot knee-jerk misogyny that the show thinks he is wrong, wrong, wrong for not being able to get past in the space of twenty-four hours. And framing it as a cultural issue seems to sidestep the gay panic entirely, which I appreciated. In some ways, Quark's problem isn't that he's a traditionalist (like Rom, who comes off like an utter putz in this episode), it's that he's not enough of one: he'll defy the Grand Nagus and throw away an assured future of Dominion percentages to stand up for Pel, but he won't run away with her to the Gamma Quadrant, or even ask her to stay on Deep Space Nine. "No one there cares if I wear clothes or not."–"I'd care." At least he can admit it. Doesn't make it less sad. And apparently makes up for all the other awkwardnesses in the writing of this episode, because they're not what I'm thinking about all these hours later.

[skygiants]

Oh man, isn't Rules of Acquisition good? It's SO GOOD. Pel is such a delight! I would have loved to see her either stick around or pop up for occasional hijinks episodes, a la Lwaxana Troi.

I also love it because, yes, the episodes where they let themselves actually take Ferengi culture and Quark's cultural conflicts as a serious issue are all the best ones. Have you seen Body Parts? That's the one where Quark gets false information that he's going to die, and sells his corpse on eBay, and then has a really profound moral crisis when it turns out he's not dying after all, because he made the sale, and he really, devoutly believes in his responsibility as a Ferengi to complete it. There's no cross-dressing, but it's awfully good.

"Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[sovay]

I would have loved to see her either stick around or pop up for occasional hijinks episodes, a la Lwaxana Troi.

Either, dammit! I'm not picky!

Quark gets false information that he's going to die, and sells his corpse on eBay, and then has a really profound moral crisis when it turns out he's not dying after all, because he made the sale, and he really, devoutly believes in his responsibility as a Ferengi to complete it.

That sounds great, thank you; I will watch it directly.

[edit] That was fascinating. Especially the early conversation that makes it clear that Brunt, by forcing the issue of a contract made under misinformation, is himself violating the spirit of Ferengi law ("You don't collect on contracts under these circumstances. We're not Klingons!"), so that every time he leans nastily on Quark's failure to measure up to Ferengi standards, he's functioning less as an embodiment of pure Ferengi tradition than as a handy externalization of Quark's values and fears—the question of Quark's fidelity to his culture is very real, but there's an intersecting issue of interpretation of traditions, which makes the whole dilemma automatically more complex than individual vs. society. The latter's in there too, of course, with the dialogue leaning heavily on the impresssion I'd received from "Rules of Acquisition," namely that Quark is not actually a model of Ferengi business practices; he's a wheeler-dealer and a fixer and he knows what everything costs, but he doesn't always charge it, and he doesn't run half the shady sidelines he could if a quick buck was all he cared about, and he'll disregard profit entirely if there's something more pressing like integrity or lives or family at stake. It's very important to him not to be seen as a failure: "I'm not like you or Nog or Moogie or the rest of our pathetic family! I'm a Ferengi businessman." But that doesn't extend to killing himself in order to honor an unethical contract. Which is a legitimate philosophical stance—just also the evidence Brunt needs to nail him. It's a shame that the Ferengi as a species are so intertwined with awkward Jewish stereotypes, because I find it difficult to talk about Quark as a character without wanting to resort to Yiddish. Shlimazl went through my head several times this episode. Recounting the astronomical unlikelihood of his fatal diagnosis, he says with a kind of awe, "I finally beat the odds."

(Also you did not warn me that the story basically ends like It's a Wonderful Life with the addition of a face-saving minimum storage fee, which was adorable. I just hope someone remembers to tell Garak to cancel the surprise hit.)

I wanted to say something here about how it really interests me that Quark and Rom's stories of cultural negotiation are not from the perspective of people who grew up between cultures, à la Spock or Worf, but who left their home cultures as adults and have been reckoning with things from there, but I think my brain shut down for the night. I got two hours of sleep.

Lastly, Jeffrey Combs is such a talented actor. Hearing him as Brunt, I would not recognize him vocally from Re-Animator. Well done, that guy I imprinted on from one episode of Babylon 5 something like twenty years ago.

Re: "Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[innerbrat]

NO ONE CANCELS THE HIT. Becca and I are still waiting for it. Garak's obviously playing the slow game.

Re: "Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[sovay]

Garak's obviously playing the slow game.

FAIR ENOUGH.

Re: "Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[skygiants]

Yessss. All of this! What I love about this episode is that there's a way in which both of Quark's choices here are extremely brave -- either he holds firmly to his identity as a Ferengi and honors the contract at the cost of his own life (which I'm convinced is the classic Ferengi version of the most heroic of sacrifices and there are probably folk tales and ballads about such people) OR he makes the choice to keep on living in a way that requires a radical reconception of everything he is and everything he believes for a different kind of ethics, which is also very heroic. I really like that. I like that it's a genuine moral conflict, and that for a while it really looks like he's going to go the other way.

(...also shlimazl is so the right word when it comes to Quark. Rom, on the other hand, is the schlemiel.)

Yesss, and, like, additionally, one thing I really love about DS9 is that so much of it, really -- all the stories about Quark and Garak and Odo, and to a certain extent Kira and Dax -- are not about people who grew up in human culture or in any way long to achieve it. They're confused by it, they're kind of judgy of it, they have to adapt to it to a certain extent because they live in it, but they're allowed to critique it in a way that I'm not sure any other Star Trek show does (she says blithely, not having seen enormous amounts of either TOS or TNG, but.)

JEFFREY COMBS IS SO GOOD. He plays three different characters on DS9 and I did not even realize it until Debi pointed it out. (Debi also points out, quite rightly, below, that we have spent every episode since this one waiting for Garak to leap out of a wall and try to assassinate Quark.)

Re: "Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[sovay]

(which I'm convinced is the classic Ferengi version of the most heroic of sacrifices and there are probably folk tales and ballads about such people)

*fic request goes here*

I like that it's a genuine moral conflict, and that for a while it really looks like he's going to go the other way.

And that his decision not to go that way has nothing to do with being persuaded by Federation ideals, unless you want to count the hilariously self-aware dream of the Grand Nagus Gint as played by non-conformist Rom. With the exception of Garak in his capacity as assassin and the terrifying babyswap B-plot that I am dedicatedly ignoring, the rest of the main cast keep their distance from this episode until the very end, which feels correct to me. It's Quark's culture and his decision. It's really not the Federation's call.

(I love Rom's description of Quark's friends as his "assets," because it's both an encouraging and valuable way of thinking of the situation—friends as resources as support structure—and also a thoroughly Ferengi conception of the value of friendship. To be honest, this is probably one of the reasons that Quark is not the cutthroat businessman he could be, because he doesn't think of people first in terms of what he can get out of them; he'd have very different relationships with the rest of the cast if he did. But he also doesn't think of himself as having allies, and, well, he's wrong.)

(...also shlimazl is so the right word when it comes to Quark. Rom, on the other hand, is the schlemiel.)

Yes. I am vaguely surprised there is not an episode in which Rom well-meaningly spills his soup on his brother. It feels like something that must have happened, existentially.

Brunt, of course, is just a classic, grade-A, no-take-backs shmuck.

They're confused by it, they're kind of judgy of it, they have to adapt to it to a certain extent because they live in it, but they're allowed to critique it in a way that I'm not sure any other Star Trek show does (she says blithely, not having seen enormous amounts of either TOS or TNG, but.)

No, I think that's accurate. The original series assumes the Federation as both the default and the ideal and it doesn't actually bother me that much; from the standpoint of 1966 when the show started airing, it's an aggressively diverse and inclusive future and even if it isn't the best of all possible worlds, it's trying damn hard to be the best thing available. It's a very American construction, obviously, and its ideas of inclusivity are very marked by their time in terms of race and gender, and the degree of alienness it could show onscreen was limited by the special effects capabilities of the time, but I still find it more successful than not. Next Generation is a lot more objectionably human-centric and it's set my teeth on edge since I started noticing it. See here for a brief discussion sparked by Voyager (of which I've seen about six carefully chosen, really good episodes: if the whole show had been like them, it would have been a landmark of science fiction). Enterprise is dreadful on this front, but Enterprise was dreadful on a lot of fronts, so whatever. There's a bit of a rant here.

He plays three different characters on DS9 and I did not even realize it until Debi pointed it out.

Awesome! I knew he played Weyoun; he was unexpected as Brunt. Who's the third?

Re: "Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[skygiants]

(Now I'm sidetracked by imagining Ferengi versions to such classic bargain-making-and-breaking fairy tales as, for ex., Rapunzel.)

Ha, yes, I loved the 'friends as assets' thing too -- I forget, have you seen Fullmetal Alchemist? It features a bunch of villains (some significantly more villainous than others) with names and personalities based on the seven sins; I'm reminded of Greed, who is greedy for everything INCLUDING FRIENDS.

BRUNT IS THE GREATEST SCHMUCK WHO EVER LIVED.

(While Ishka practically defines chutzpah.)

Livejournal is apparently down for planned maintenance so I can't read your links yet, but yes, that's my perception, and what makes me a bit nervous about watching more Star Trek after DS9; DS9 does screw up often, but one can tell that it's trying, and I feel like after this I'll be spoiled for the rest!

In addition to Brunt and like SEVEN Weyouns and Weyoun-variants, he also plays a one-off villain named Tiron who creeps on Kira. Apparently that was his first DS9 role, and they liked him and his ability to tolerate heavy alien makeup so much that they went on to cast him as much as they possibly could.

Re: "Would you buy a book called 'Suggestions of Acquisition'?"

[sovay]

(Now I'm sidetracked by imagining Ferengi versions to such classic bargain-making-and-breaking fairy tales as, for ex., Rapunzel.)

*OTHER FIC REQUEST GOES HERE*

(I feel like Ferengi Rumpelstiltskin is almost inevitable. Except I'm not certain he would bargain for your firstborn child, at least not in the literal you-can-let-me-have-the-baby-that-your-wife-will-bear sense, because seriously, babies are not a profit. They're total liabilities. They cry all the time—very hard on the ears, especially when you really need to apply your lobes to a problem—and the cost you have to sink into them just in order to get them to the age when they can start paying it back, look, I'm a businessman, not a family guy, don't even ask me about it . . .)

It features a bunch of villains (some significantly more villainous than others) with names and personalities based on the seven sins; I'm reminded of Greed, who is greedy for everything INCLUDING FRIENDS.

I have not seen Fullmetal Alchemist, but that's a charming image.

DS9 does screw up often, but one can tell that it's trying, and I feel like after this I'll be spoiled for the rest!

The Voyager I've seen has been astonishingly, satisfyingly good about allowing its non-human characters to be non-human; whatever else happens in the episodes I haven't seen, the show won all the points with me for an episode where Seven of Nine learns about human courtship and dating, tries it a couple of times just to see what it's like, and decides it's not really her thing. I am genuinely not sure I've ever seen that before on television, especially not with a beautiful female character at the center of the story. It's not played as some kind of failure on her part. It's not the sign of her lost and unrecoverable humanity—in bittersweet counterpoint, the pure AI that is the Voyager's Doctor was the one who elected to teach her all about romance and fell in love with her in the process, so this is a future where machines can have unrequited heartache just like anyone else. It's just a fact of the person she is and the show goes on.

(There's a similar episode where the Doctor runs up hard against the limits of his programming—he was never designed as a real artificial intelligence, just a temporary medical program whose conversation could pass a Turing test—and while it looks superficially like a human crisis of conscience, it's something much more poignant and much more science-fictional and it's beautifully done. That was the first episode of Voyager I was shown and it sealed me to the show for better or worse. Yes, there are some monumentally stupid episodes in Voyager's seven-year run. But there's some knockout science fiction in it, too, and I'm willing to endure the existence of the one for the sake of the other.)

Do not waste your time with Enterprise. Nothing I have ever heard about it has made me regret bailing after half a dozen episodes.

In addition to Brunt and like SEVEN Weyouns and Weyoun-variants

derspatchel has told me about this! It sounded like a very impressive acting run. Wayne Alexander was kind of like that to Babylon 5.

[edit] Brunt is really good at being a shmuck.

[innerbrat]

Also, the reason Quark is cross-dressing anyway is to prove that women are as good at Ferengi-ing as men. The plot is literally "Quark needs to be a smart businesswoman to prove that women can do business."

[sovay]

The plot is literally "Quark needs to be a smart businesswoman to prove that women can do business."

That really would have been an excellent time for the reappearance of Pel, the woman who once successfully negotiated on behalf of the Grand Nagus. Or any of the other Ferengi women who are living as male in order to acquire agency and profit, because you know Pel can't have been the only one it occurred to; or any of the other women like Ishka who just conduct business without broadcasting it, because ditto. Or just about anyone other than a surgically altered Ferengi man because aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh.

I know it would never have happened because Star Trek is historically terrible about this sort of thing,* but there's a level on which I'm genuinely surprised we don't see more Ferengi in male/male relationships. Normal distribution of sexual orientation plus cultural patterns: if you treat your women like they're barely sentient, who are you going to fall in love with? Start with classical Athens, delete the hetairas and extrapolate from there. It is true that I am almost certainly influenced in this line by having read Phyllis Gotlieb's Birthstones (2007), but it's a really good novel.

* A notable exception being Jadzia's conversation with Pel, actually: "You really do, don't you—love Quark? . . . I've seen the way you look at him. Does he know?"–"He doesn't even know I'm a female."–"You're a woman?" That was best.

[st_aurafina]

I bailed on Profit and Lace, and I regret nothing. So glad I didn't watch it.

I love how squirmy the Starfleet people get when Sisko's getting his Prophet on.

[skygiants]

THAT WAS THE CORRECT DECISION.

Dax's expressions of profound discomfort whenever Sisko gets all Jesus-y are, however, amazing.

[elle_white]

I remember Profit and Lace, and how utterly terrible it was. But I don't recall Rules of Acquisitiion.

I ship Odo/Kira something fierce. Their relationship after this point is handled wonderfully, but I wish the writers had handled their initial hook-up better! I cringe every time Vic appears.

[skygiants]

"Rules of Acquisition" is the one where it turns out Quark's dapper new business partner is a cross-dressing woman who's in love with him. It's very Twelfth Night. In the end, Quark can't cope and she runs away to make her fortune, and good for her!

Oh god, I know, I can't STAND Vic. He's just a bad advice machine. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since Bashir programmed him, and Bashir is also a bad advice machine. BUT STILL.

[scifantasy]

I feel deeply cheated that we did not get and will never get an episode of Lwaxana Troi leading the resistance against the invaders, because come on!

That's the plot of several tie-in novels, most notablyThe Battle of Betazed.

[skygiants]

I am very happy to learn that!

...are the tie-in novels any good?

[scifantasy]

Depends on the writer, unfortunately.

[kd7sov]

As you've now seen In the Pale Moonlight, I feel it is time to introduce you to this youtube video.

[skygiants]

.........I'm not entirely sure what I just watched.

[asakiyume]

Here because Sovay linked in a recent comment. One thing I was always up for was frustrating Weyoun, or as I suddenly would like to dub him, His Arrogant Obsequiousness.

I was sorry Jadzia and Worf couldn't live happily ever after. Poor Worf.

[skygiants]

Watching Weyoun be miserable was just a consistent source of joy throughout the show whenever it occurred.

What was frustrating about this show, watching it and knowing that eventually Jadzia was going to die, was how many really good married-couple episodes it gave us that were clearly only designed to make us sadder when she died. But they would have been extremely good episodes, otherwise!

[asakiyume]

One thing my husband and I remarked on, when we were doing our watch-through, was how terrified/suspicious/scornful the writers seemed to be about married/long-term-relationship life. The only couple who were allowed to be a couple and be joyfully happy were Quark's mom and the Nagus. Think about it: Keiko and O'Brien? An object lesson on why/how marriage is miserable. Kasey and Sisko? A good couple, so DOOMED. Worf and Jadziya? A good couple, so DOOMED. Kira and Odo? DOOMED (or well, not doomed, but not able to stay together). Garak and Dukat's daughter? DOOMED. And we won't even dignify Kai Winn and Dukat as a real relationship.

Of all of them, the only couple that go on to be more than a couple (i.e., to start on the next generation) is the one in which the pair are most unhappy with each other. I mean, all relationships--even the by-and-large-better-than-het relationships, like O'Brien's and Bashir's, or Garak's and Bashir's, or Dukat and his second-in-command whose name I've forgotten, or the sweet nemesis relationship of Dukat and Sisko--have their down points, but none are as grindingly depressing as Keiko and O'Brien's.