The Rest of DS9 Season Six
I covered in my last post the first six episodes of season six. So this post season really spans from Kira and Odo's reconciliation being disappointing to Jadzia's death being disappointing. But overall, I'd say this is a stronger season that even season five.
I mentioned in my first post about DS9, I watched In the Pale Moonlight and Far Beyond ( Read more... )
I mentioned in my first post about DS9, I watched In the Pale Moonlight and Far Beyond ( Read more... )
Thinking about with Wrongs Darker in mind, I'm not sure if there could be any way to get them together without some hand waving by the writers. Kira is so very unforgiving. They may have actually written themselves into a hole a bit with that one.
But the conclusion - Sisko's "some people are just plain evil" traumatized me for life.
I forgot about that bit. Possibly my brain just decided it didn't want to remember it. I'm not all that happy about Sisko vs Dukat turning a good vs. evil. I'm not all that happy with it being Sisko vs. Dukat either, not when there's so many other characters with very personal reasons for wanting to seek revenge on Dukat and have had more interesting dynamics with him through the series. Kira, Garak, and Damar, I think all have more pressing claims to Dukat than Sisko. And, well, while the show acknowledges the Sisko is an outsider and even runs with it being on of the reasons Kai Winn resents him, it doesn't stop it from being another repeat of that paternalistic outsider-joins-the-native-people-and-becomes-their-leader/god plotline. I can put my dislike for that aside normally when watching the show, it really comes to the fore in the Sisko vs. Dukat thing.
but it let Sisko off the hook in a crucial point by letting Jake tell him he was totally fine with being sacrificed for the greater good.
I didn't think about that. I'm very glad they did not decide to have a storyline in which Jake is resentful over his father's actions, as after four seasons of everybody's Bill Adama Daddy issues on BSG, I'm so very happy that Jake and Sisko have a wonderful relationship, but still, it does seem like an easy way out.
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They did, but I still think a subplot would have sold me more on the handwaving. As it is, to quote from an older post of mine on the subject: As she tells Odo at the start of season 6, she believes (believed) in the saying "if you're not fighting them, you're helping them". So, seeing her mother not knifing Dukat at the first chance Meru gets (which presumably would have resulted in Meru getting executed, and her family as well), or talking about how much she hates Dukat the minute Dukat is out of earshot but seeing with her own eyes that Meru showed signs of actually being fond of Dukat was too much to take. "It's not that you share his bed, but that you like sharing it!" Nerys screams at Meru.
But. Let's take a step back and compare and contrast. Meru was a nearly starving woman forcibly torn from her husband and children to serve as a prostitute. She then was lucky within that ghastly condition since instead of being passed from one Cardassian to another, she caught the eye of the most powerful one who offered not just physical safety for her but food and shelter for her family as well. (Which he delivered, if Tovan's message is anything to go by.) It still wasn't her choice but what choice did she have? A) Kill Dukat. See above. Would have meant her death and probably the death of her family. B) Endure Dukat to remain alive and help her family but in a "lie back and think of Bajor" manner. C) Doing the Stockholm Syndrom thing and becoming attached to the person providing food, security and care. Now I don't blame her for going the C) way.
On the other hand, we have Odo. Twice. Who had all the choices of the world. As opposed to Meru, he wasn't starving, nor did he have a family. He could have left his position as security chief at any time; he could have left both Bajor and Terok Nor, with or without Dukat's agreement. (Come on, Odo is a shapeshifter.) Instead, he worked for Dukat for years (and apparently Dukat trusted him enough to make him what-was-that-title-again-from-Tribunal as well), nearly as many as Meru was Dukat's mistress. He made quite a lot of contacts with other Cardassians as well who still owed him favours (Odo-meets-Cardassian-informant is a scene quite common during the early years of the show). He didn't do it for his family or his life, and he certainly wasn't charmed by Dukat. His great justification seems to have been that he wanted to pursue justice, and that someone else would have done worse in his place. Honestly, between Meru and Odo, I'd call Odo a collaborator any time.
Then we have Odo under the second occupation. See above and earlier entries. From Behind the Lines onwards, his actions were his own choices, including, incidentally, literary sharing a bed with the new regime. And yet the same Kira Nerys who though she ultimately can't bear to kill her mother still wishes she would have, who still condemns Meru as unforgivable, forgives him after one long chat. (Which we never see.) And becomes his lover a few months later. This double standard really, really sticks in my throat.
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Recently, I wrote an essay about that. And yes, word on the dynamics between Kira, Garak and Damar on the one and Dukat on the other hand being way more interesting than Sisko versus Dukat. Don't get me started on how the Dukat/Sisko fisticuffs in the show finale are the lamest thing since Kirk and Picard went mano a mano with Soren in Generations. (Doesn't mean the DS9 finale in general isn't good, just not the Sisko versus Dukat part of it. I rather suspect it was to give Sisko something to do, because otherwise all the important stuff in the finale is done by Kira and Odo.) An interesting essay about Dukat is this one, which stirred up some considerable controversy. (I agree with parts and disagree with others, but I think it's eminently readable, and not just because it was written for me. *g*)
I love the harmonious Jake and Ben Sisko relationship as well - plus, you know, Sisko's with his own father - the three generations of Siskos getting along so well is a great change from most people having daddy issues everywhere - but I do wish in this particular case, Jake would have been allowed to react. If you play out the Abraham & Isaac scenario, which is one of the most disturbing stories in the Old Testament to me, then please, please, give Isaac the chance to respond to what happened. As it is, the writers were so intent to preserve the Jake and Ben harmony that they shied away not only from this but from a story that was originally planned for s7 but chucked because it would have burdened the father/son relationship - Jake was originally supposed to uncover, as a journalist, his father's shenanigans from "In the Pale Moonlight"; he'd have been Woodward & Bernstein to Ben's Watergate. But no.
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I rather suspect it was to give Sisko something to do, because otherwise all the important stuff in the finale is done by Kira and Odo.
You touched on something that's I've been thinking about through this show. Back when I was watching the early seasons, sometime before Destiny, I did think it was weird that Sisko was the lead because other characters, namely Kira and Odo, with the former having all that weighty occupation issues, and the latter discovering his own people ruled the Dominion, had character arcs seemed naturally more tied into where the show was going. Because of that, those two seemed to be more natural protagonists, while Sisko seemed to be made the lead because it was Star Trek and so they needed the lead to be in Starfleet.
Sisko being the lead in later seasons doesn't seem so artificial with the Emissary stuff becoming more prominent and his massive role in the Dominion War. But, still, sometimes Sisko feels sandwiched in.
He'd have been Woodward & Bernstein to Ben's Watergate.
That saddens me a bit because I would have loved to see Jake's career as a journalist become of more relevance to the show, and Jake brought more into the fold. As it is, he just hangs about. When he chose to stay behind in Call to Arms I expected Jake being Sisko's son and a journalist to get him in lots of trouble. Instead he just attended Kira's resistance cell meetings and didn't contribute much.
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