Deep Space Nine Thoughts: The Alternate-- or, How DS9 Introduced an Abusive Dad and Handwaved It OK
Wow, that was not where I expected this episode to go. Seriously, this is the kind of father/son relationship that you come back from?
From the minute Dr. Mora showed up to talk about Odo's past, I assumed that the episode was setting him up as the villain-- the abusive father figure.
The way Mora talks to Odo, "Oh, you still haven't gotten the ears," and asking about whether the clothes and boots were part of his body and talking over him and about Odo's feelings while he's still in the room, as though Odo is not the boss of his own feelings. He's terribly condescending and violates Odo's privacy a lot by showing up unexpectedly. I read Mora immediately as controlling and manipulative.
He depersonalizes Odo, while reminiscing to others how Odo was the best thing that ever happened to him as a science experiment. And he seemed, by his position as a Bajoran scientist on a Cardassian space station, to be morally suspect- I expected the show to reveal him as some terrible Dr. Mengele figure to drive the point home. Even without that, though, in every way Dr. Mora acts on screen, he just reeks of that weird entitled parent thing, who is shocked that his victim managed to get out and get a life for themselves.
And that scene in Odo's office, when Mora reveals that the monster on the ship is really Odo under the effects of the gas they encountered before. I really, really expected Dr. Mora to be lying, to have smuggled some sample of Odo's body from his lab years ago to continue his research and now, to have released the full grown sample into the space station to convince Odo that he was Jekyll and Hyding. The way Mora spoke to Odo reminded me of nothing so much as Mother Gotel in Tangled: demanding gratitude from Odo for receiving the most basic aspects of human care. My God, he threatened to have Odo PUT IN A ZOO in order to make him behave properly. It was awful. It was just awful. I fully expected the monster to be revealed as another shapeshifter or perhaps some unrelated lifeform that Mora controlled in order to compel Odo to return, and complete their experiments.
In short, the show made me think of Dr Mora as a father figure to Odo, but his treatment made it clear to me that he was an abusive and controlling father. I cannot think that the way the episode actually ended, with the beginnings of a reconciliation, are anywhere near appropriate. Dr. Mora and the kind of people who treat people as science experiments are the villains.
This entry was originally posted at http://kitewithfish.dreamwidth.org/388611.html.
From the minute Dr. Mora showed up to talk about Odo's past, I assumed that the episode was setting him up as the villain-- the abusive father figure.
The way Mora talks to Odo, "Oh, you still haven't gotten the ears," and asking about whether the clothes and boots were part of his body and talking over him and about Odo's feelings while he's still in the room, as though Odo is not the boss of his own feelings. He's terribly condescending and violates Odo's privacy a lot by showing up unexpectedly. I read Mora immediately as controlling and manipulative.
He depersonalizes Odo, while reminiscing to others how Odo was the best thing that ever happened to him as a science experiment. And he seemed, by his position as a Bajoran scientist on a Cardassian space station, to be morally suspect- I expected the show to reveal him as some terrible Dr. Mengele figure to drive the point home. Even without that, though, in every way Dr. Mora acts on screen, he just reeks of that weird entitled parent thing, who is shocked that his victim managed to get out and get a life for themselves.
And that scene in Odo's office, when Mora reveals that the monster on the ship is really Odo under the effects of the gas they encountered before. I really, really expected Dr. Mora to be lying, to have smuggled some sample of Odo's body from his lab years ago to continue his research and now, to have released the full grown sample into the space station to convince Odo that he was Jekyll and Hyding. The way Mora spoke to Odo reminded me of nothing so much as Mother Gotel in Tangled: demanding gratitude from Odo for receiving the most basic aspects of human care. My God, he threatened to have Odo PUT IN A ZOO in order to make him behave properly. It was awful. It was just awful. I fully expected the monster to be revealed as another shapeshifter or perhaps some unrelated lifeform that Mora controlled in order to compel Odo to return, and complete their experiments.
In short, the show made me think of Dr Mora as a father figure to Odo, but his treatment made it clear to me that he was an abusive and controlling father. I cannot think that the way the episode actually ended, with the beginnings of a reconciliation, are anywhere near appropriate. Dr. Mora and the kind of people who treat people as science experiments are the villains.
This entry was originally posted at http://kitewithfish.dreamwidth.org/388611.html.