So I started re-watching Deep Space Nine
I never finished the series when it originally aired, so no spoilers please! I'm only about halfway through season one thus far.
Watching this show makes me so nostalgic. It originally aired when I was eleven or twelve years old, just old enough to reject bed times and begin making my own decisions. Where I lived, it aired at 10:30 on Saturday nights, and I used to curl up in my father's recliner to watch it. We had a three-story split level house, and the family room was on the lowest level, halfway underground. Since my parents were always in their bedrooms on the top floor, I felt completely independent and alone downstairs. Those years were also the first years that I became really aware of politics, and I knew just enough to appreciate the show as the product of a post Cold War world where former Soviet satellite states were slowly rebuilding after years of occupation. Now, with a political science degree and a lot of Eastern European/Central Asian travel experience behind me, I appreciate the historical resonance of the show even more...although I also wish that Kira was really the main character and we could watch the show through her eyes instead of Sisko's.
My favorite thing about the show is still its basic premise. It's dark and gritty. Not everything is shiny and new. There are morally ambiguous characters and situations where right and wrong are muddled. TNG will always have a soft spot in my heart, but their complete and total faith in the perfect goodness of the Federation made the show unsatisfying in many ways. DS9 does the best kind of story telling in my opinion -- the kind where no one is the bad guy and you can see the reasoning for the decisions that each character makes. When Kira called the Admiral on Sisko, I knew that she was out of line, but I also empathized with her uncertainty about Starfleet's role on Bajor and her passion for defending her people.
Although Nana Visitor overacts a little, Kira is still one of my favorite science fiction ladies. When I saw her the first time, I felt the same jolt of longing and pride I experienced the first time I saw Princess Leia in Star Wars. Here was a woman who could speak her mind and fire a gun, someone who wouldn't take no for answer and probably wouldn't let the writers sideline her either. I didn't know how to articulate it then, but that was the kind of woman I wanted to be and wanted to see. Even though it's been fifteen years since I saw the show, I still remember how much I loved her. On the other hand, I'd completely forgotten how much I love Quark and Odo's relationship, or maybe I didn't appreciate it when I was twelve. Their banter is so pitch-perfect. They hate each other, but neither one of them would know what to do without the other.
My least favorite thing about the show is graviton particles. Graviton particles are responsible for everything that ever happens. In fact, things like graviton particles are my least favorite aspect of every Star Trek show. All the technobabble story resolutions waste the potential of the series. I notice it more on DS9 than I ever did in TNG because the characterization work is so well-done on this show, and the larger political context has been well-developed too. Yet, every episode ends with a technological crisis that is either caused by gravitons or resolved by gravitons. It's not like sci-fi can't do character-driven conflict well -- just look at BSG and Firefly, neither of which tried to hide behind the technology of the future. DS9 just missed that opportunity, like all the other televised Star Trek series.
My other least favorite thing is Dr. Bashir. Seriously, can this man just die? I actually appreciate that the show created a less-than-ideal character who thinks that the Bajorans' struggle for freedom is his grand frontier adventure. In fact, I find that even more important in light of our ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there is absolutely no reason for him to treat women the way he does. He is icky and sleazy and disgusting, and I'd really like to see him get slapped across the face -- or worse. I really hope that the men of the future are more evolved than he is.
So how does Yuletide madness work? Can you play even if you didn't sign up for the main Yuletide event? I'd kind of like to fill a couple DS9 story requests if I could, even though my offerings would have to be set early in the first season.
Watching this show makes me so nostalgic. It originally aired when I was eleven or twelve years old, just old enough to reject bed times and begin making my own decisions. Where I lived, it aired at 10:30 on Saturday nights, and I used to curl up in my father's recliner to watch it. We had a three-story split level house, and the family room was on the lowest level, halfway underground. Since my parents were always in their bedrooms on the top floor, I felt completely independent and alone downstairs. Those years were also the first years that I became really aware of politics, and I knew just enough to appreciate the show as the product of a post Cold War world where former Soviet satellite states were slowly rebuilding after years of occupation. Now, with a political science degree and a lot of Eastern European/Central Asian travel experience behind me, I appreciate the historical resonance of the show even more...although I also wish that Kira was really the main character and we could watch the show through her eyes instead of Sisko's.
My favorite thing about the show is still its basic premise. It's dark and gritty. Not everything is shiny and new. There are morally ambiguous characters and situations where right and wrong are muddled. TNG will always have a soft spot in my heart, but their complete and total faith in the perfect goodness of the Federation made the show unsatisfying in many ways. DS9 does the best kind of story telling in my opinion -- the kind where no one is the bad guy and you can see the reasoning for the decisions that each character makes. When Kira called the Admiral on Sisko, I knew that she was out of line, but I also empathized with her uncertainty about Starfleet's role on Bajor and her passion for defending her people.
Although Nana Visitor overacts a little, Kira is still one of my favorite science fiction ladies. When I saw her the first time, I felt the same jolt of longing and pride I experienced the first time I saw Princess Leia in Star Wars. Here was a woman who could speak her mind and fire a gun, someone who wouldn't take no for answer and probably wouldn't let the writers sideline her either. I didn't know how to articulate it then, but that was the kind of woman I wanted to be and wanted to see. Even though it's been fifteen years since I saw the show, I still remember how much I loved her. On the other hand, I'd completely forgotten how much I love Quark and Odo's relationship, or maybe I didn't appreciate it when I was twelve. Their banter is so pitch-perfect. They hate each other, but neither one of them would know what to do without the other.
My least favorite thing about the show is graviton particles. Graviton particles are responsible for everything that ever happens. In fact, things like graviton particles are my least favorite aspect of every Star Trek show. All the technobabble story resolutions waste the potential of the series. I notice it more on DS9 than I ever did in TNG because the characterization work is so well-done on this show, and the larger political context has been well-developed too. Yet, every episode ends with a technological crisis that is either caused by gravitons or resolved by gravitons. It's not like sci-fi can't do character-driven conflict well -- just look at BSG and Firefly, neither of which tried to hide behind the technology of the future. DS9 just missed that opportunity, like all the other televised Star Trek series.
My other least favorite thing is Dr. Bashir. Seriously, can this man just die? I actually appreciate that the show created a less-than-ideal character who thinks that the Bajorans' struggle for freedom is his grand frontier adventure. In fact, I find that even more important in light of our ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there is absolutely no reason for him to treat women the way he does. He is icky and sleazy and disgusting, and I'd really like to see him get slapped across the face -- or worse. I really hope that the men of the future are more evolved than he is.
So how does Yuletide madness work? Can you play even if you didn't sign up for the main Yuletide event? I'd kind of like to fill a couple DS9 story requests if I could, even though my offerings would have to be set early in the first season.