#avery brooks killed it in this scene

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 4x09 Our Man Bashir thoughts (I’m re-watching, so beware spoilers for future episodes!) [2 July '23]

*window crash* wait, no, is this...? AH YISSS, IT'S OUR MAN BASHIR, I am so hype to see this again!

I mean that the glass bottle trick was smooth

"Bashir. Julian Bashir." And then Garak starts clapping, hilarious

Aww, Garak being sad that Julian has been too busy with his new holosuite programme to spend time with him - when he finds out it's a spy programme, to boot, do you think he felt he was being replaced by something fancier and better? That Julian only hung around with him because he was a spy?

"It's so unusual for you to have secrets"... little do you know, Garak. If you're excited about this, how much will you enjoy his augmentation secret?

WHY ARE THEY STANDING SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER (gayyyyy)

"I wonder what scared her away. You must be incensed." Garak is baiting him so much XD Yes, Julian, he wants you to be mad

This is already such a fun episode, I'd forgotten quite how much!

"I think I joined the wrong intelligence service." IS THAT AN ADMISSION, GARAK?! You've never admitted to being a spy before, I am sure!

Why does Julian need to get his suits made by Garak if the holosuite can produce clothes - or are all of these costumes his valet is bringing out ones he's bought and somehow saved in the programme?

"Nerys, please." There's just something about the way he says this. He's not acting angry like he is at Garak, he's seemingly more cautious about telling her off for being here? I guess he's starting to think it's not Kira?

Odo going "That sounded like Kira!" even though she sounds Russian... Something something universal translator? Or he's just so attuned to her?

Julian is so pissed with this turn off events disrupting everything into something lethal. He just wanted a fun time

I have never noticed the falcon on Miles' eyepatch before!

"But that's Miles." - The way Julian says that is so gentle...

His soft "Sorry, my dear" to his dead valet - oh, my love :3

"Right behind the spatula." Oh, ROM. Incredible engineering XD

"Welcome to paradise." Okay, Avery Brooks just stole this scene.

How have I only just realised the symbolism of the villain, who is trying to flood the world and restart a better life, being called Noah?

"O'Brien's gonna kill me when he gets back." XD

Ohhh I was wondering how they got from Dr Noah's room to the tunnel - I had forgotten the being-tied-up scene

"Honey, will you grant me one last request and take off those glasses?" Yes Garak, that eye roll is what we're all thinking... Julian's acting is so ridiculously earnest XD "Kiss the girl, get the key - they never taught me that in the Obsidian Order." Garak is being so unusually frank! Is this part of his ploy to win back Julian from the game? Trying to remind him that I was a real spy, you know, my dear doctor?

The waver in Julian's voice as he says "If you call for the exit, you might kill Sisko and the others..." :3

Boy, their argument in the tunnel is such a tense scene, even better than I remember!

"You dream of being a hero because deep down you're not." OUCH. The worst thing is, Julian probably agrees.

"That's all about to end now isn't it?" - bit of London accent sneaking in there

"It's working just as you planned! You've done it, Doctor." "Yes.But somehow I didn't expect to win."

Oh I love everything about this sceeeeene

"Lunch tomorrow?" "Of course. But why don't we have it at your place, in Hong Kong?" I DO NOT REMEMBER THAT LINE. WOW. GAY.

Okay, yeah, this is the point where they get together imo.

I mean everyone knows this episode is fantastic, but also, THIS EPISODE IS BLOODY FANTASTIC AND I LOVE IT TO BITS.

[cicaklah]

picard 2x03 thots

been having some thots again

I am a ds9 fan, it is my favourite star trek, and past tense 1 and 2 are up there among my favourite episodes. If you haven't seen them, due to a transporter accident Dax, Sisko and Bashir are transported to San Francisco in 2024, a few days before a historical moment known as the bell riots. Similarily to this episode, the three are separated by quirks of geography. They materialise around a subway station, Dax inside it and Sisko and Bashir outside it. Dax is rescued by a billionaire tech dude who hits on her and introduces her to high society, while Sisko and Bashir are rounded up and thrown into concentration camp for the homeless known as sanctuary districts.

Even TNG did this plot, when Data is trapped in the 1800s san francisco. And of course First Contact, with 2070s Montana. And voyager did it too, with the early 2000s. And TOS, in multiple episodes AND in The Voyage Home, And I am sure Enterprise did it.

The explicit use of 2024 in this episode HAS to be a clue that they're going to do the bell riots though, right? A big turning point in history? But why? There's literally a two part episode about this in another series saying that 2024 was the pivotal moment in the formation of the better future that these characters are from. We, as trekkie viewers, already know that this was a pivotal year! There was even a brief thing talking about sanctuary districts in this episode, and the memory alpha recap says that Raffi wakes up IN a sanctuary district, but er, how did she and Seven get out if so?

There was a rumour that Avery Brooks had filmed a cameo for this season, or that they were asking him, but while I really want some ds9 representation in this show other than a few mentions, I'm skeptical and apprehensive. I just don't think the writers of this show can do a subtle enough treatment of this plotline. I think they want to speak truth to OUR present, which misses the whole bloody point of star trek which used to embrace the divergent history, you know, that the late 20th century and early 21st century was leading up to a nuclear war that destroyed north american society and humanity was then dramatically saved by collaboration with alien races.

ANYWAY amateur star trek historian hour over, lets turn to Picard is an idiot part 2000, namely 1. letting my girl Agnes get assimilated and 2. NOT DOING WHAT SHE ASKED which was pulling her out when she got too assimilated!!!!! I mean we got the cool moment when Agnes got to show that she got the data out of the borg queen, and she looked wonderful in that scene shot from the queens angle, I sympathise, I also look best photographed from way above, but daaaamn, anyway, it was good but also UGH could someone put the idiot ball in the airlock and fire it into space???? absolute idiot ball.

If they assimilate my girl properly I will probably write a lot of fic but also be upset about it, lbr I'm in this show to the end.

ALSO I need to talk about how they killed Elnor...and only Raffi was upset. god Picard you are the WORST FATHER FIGURE EVER. But now they've done what I wanted, trimmed the characters down, though this just felt...ugh. just to upset Raffi...who has a lot of reasons to be upset anyway!!! She doesnt' need this!!!

The Rios and hot doctor lady ICE plotline was fine although excuse you he loves Agnes, I have written several fanfics about it.

FINALLY for todays thots, Raffi and Seven have so much potential but theres no bloody time to do it because THE FATE OF THE FUTURE AND THE GALAXY BLAH BLAH BLAH I'm gonna write them getting together and breaking up because the show won't do it justice. Sometimes you've got to fucking fix it yourself.

anyway this season is ON NOTICE but its still great and I'm enjoying it even if just to bitch about it.

[autisticburnham]

In the Pale Moonlight

I love Benjamin's pillows

I know in real life they have to, but do Star Trek counselors have to report it if you kill someone?

They should get involved bc the Dominon will obviously come for them next

I love Dax

I think using up all your favors at home is worth not being conquered by the Dominon, Garak

Can Betazoids not read Jem'hadar or Vorta? Seems difficult to conquer telepaths

I like Garak's outfit here

Garak said Beta Zed

This guy's gross. It would have been fun if Julian's friend Felix were capable of forgery

I can't believe Quark tried to protect one of his employees from sexual harassment. Guess the union's going great

A baseball card costs 5 bars of latinum, and that's what Quark's willing to accept to ignore attempted murder?

Fuck, everytime Avery Brooks gets breathy it hits hard

Isn't biomimetic gel what dude who put Julian in a coma was after?

I still don't underestimate how Romulus doesn't know their sun is going to supernova soon. It seems like something people with the tech to turn invisible would be able to detect. You'd think the Federation would be able to just offer red matter/evacuation aid in exchange for help in the war

Sir, you tried to assault a dabo girl and stabbed a bartender

Did they build a shuttle bay just for this scene?

I went to Memory Alpha to see if they said what was used as the Romulan drink since it looks like blue gatorade, and they didn't have it, but they have the sentence "Fields's original premise revolved around Jake "watergating" First Minister Shakaar."

Weyoun said thrrrrust

"It's a faaake" was way quiter than I remembered

I'm not saying murder is okay, but how many Jem'hadar has Benjamin ordered the deaths of? And the murder of one Romulan sends him spiraling? It's not like the Jem'hadar even willingly sign up to fight, so you can't say they made their own choices getting involved in the war

*sits in bisexual*

Great episode. Can't believe it's followed up by kiraodo trash. 10/10

[aprilshowers2236]

Grey’s Anatomy Exits Ranked From Best to Worst

Addison Montgomery: She rode off into the Californian sunset. She found fulfilling work at a thriving practice, made wonderful friends and founded a beautiful family with the love of her life. Private Practice was a fantastic show, because it stood really well on its own, but gave us a great crossover episode every once in a while.

Cristina Yang: She stayed true to herself, seeking out opportunities to learn and grow as a surgeon in a state of the art cardiac research facility in Switzerland.She said her heartfelt goodbyes, before dancing it out with her ‘person’ one last time.

Preston Burke: He did ground-breaking work in Zurich. He mended fences with Cristina, before choosing to spend time with his loving family.

Nathan Riggs: He found happiness in Malibu with his long-lost fiancé and her beloved little boy.

Stephanie Edwards: She literally left Seattle in a blaze of glory, having saved that little girl’s life during the fire. I hope she is fully recovered, traveling the world like she wanted.

Erica Hahn: She stood by her principles, protesting Izzy’s theft of a donor heart for Denny. I hope she is out there somewhere, doing groundbreaking surgery alongside a lovely lesbian.

Callie Torres & Arizona Robbins: Arizona prioritised her daughter’s needs in moving cross country so she could be with her Mama in a show of successful co-parenting. Though Callie’s original exit (in pursuit of Penny) was regrettable, a simple text was enough to rekindle the Calzona flame.

Derek Shepherd: His death was untimely, but it allow Derek and Meredith’s eternal love to live on. He left his wife one final gift, in the form of their daughter, Ellis.

George O’Malley: His death was suddden and tragic, like many in the real world. Perhaps George was taken too soon. Perhaps it would have been more realistic if he died in the line of duty while serving in the military, but you can’t deny that his final elevator scene was iconic.

Reed Adamson & Charles Percy: Frankly, I never developed an attachment to either of these residents, who came to the hospital after Seattle Grace was merged with Mercy West. However, no matter who you are or what you’ve done, a mass shooting is not a nice way to go.

Leah Murphy & Shane Ross: Some crack under the pressure of surgical residency and some are home wreckers. It was lucky they weren’t killed off in a bid to appease outraged Crowen/Calzona fans.

Izzie Stevens: I think it might have been somewhat neater and/or more realistic if Izzie had died of cancer as originally planned. I started watching the series in Season 7, before eventually binging all previous episodes, so Katherine Heigl has never really had a special place in my heart. But I’m still glad she got to have kids, live happily on a farm in Kansas.

Heather Brooks: Electrocution was a horrible way to go, but at least she died while trying to save the beloved Richard Webber.

April Kepner: I’m a huge Japril fan, but no matter how you feel about April and Matthew as a couple, she deserves to be happy. It is some consolation that she is alive and well in Washington, so perhaps all hope is not lost for her and Avery.

Lexie Grey & Mark Sloane: Their death was terribly sad and anything but the happily ever after Slexie deserved. I’m forever bitter that Lexie didn’t just take a research year in New York. Sloane could have realised his true feelings and followed her there to propose. Eventually, they would both find permanent work and decide that NY was the best place to raise their kids. This would have made Callie’s decision to move to New York a lot more sensible for Sofia. It might have been tricky to manage Meredith’s relationship with Lexie off-screen, but why not, if they did so for her best friend? I’m sure the fans would have played along. Either way, the plane crash was a little far-fetched.

Alex Karev: I’m aware that the writers did not have a lot of time, but Justin’s exist storyline was quite poor. It’s not so much a question of why, but how. It’s understandable that Alex would want to be with his kids. Maybe there was a possibility that he would have fallen back in love with Izzie over time. But for him to ghost his wife for 6 weeks after they have only just renewed their vows? For him to explain himself in a letter containing divorce papers? To leave his best friend, his second family and the woman who has been left heartbroken by any family member she has ever known? That meant destroying 16 seasons worth of character development in one foul swoop. No, these are not the actions of Alex Karev. He should have invited Jo to Kansas to meet the kids. They would have tried to make it work, even as his love for Izzie grew. Then perhaps he would have been the one receiving a goodbye letter, as Jo set him free to be with his family before returning to Seattle. Later, Zola, Bailey and Emilia could visit the farm with Meredith, only to come back to the hospital, full of excitement at having made friends with Alexis and Eli.

I wish Justin every health and happiness in his future endeavours. It seems there is a lot going on behind-the-scenes. It can’t have been an easy decision to go, but sometimes you have to do what’s right for you.

[sshbpodcast]

The Highest of Highs and Lowest of Lows in DS9 S6

by Ames

In a carnival ride full of whiplash-inducing episodes, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s sixth season features some of the best episodes and some of the worst episodes in the entire Trek franchise, full stop. So it was a very emotional bunch of weeks for your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By, and we may just break down and sing about it! And a one, and a two...

In our usual fashion, we’ve determined which of those episodes mark the best of the best and the worst of the goddamn freaking everything in our season wrap-up episode, which you can also listen to here (pertinent discussion starts at 1:25:55). Some decisions were easy (oh so easy) while some were wildcards, and we also had special guest star Liz helping us bolster our favorites and roast our least favorites. Crack open your favorite Benny Russell story and read away!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Bottom Three Episodes

Wow, there were a lot more clunkers than usual in this season than we were expecting from DS9, but some of them were just so bad that we took it personally.

“Time’s Orphan”: Jake For a concept that required a lot of research into child development and psychology, this one sure didn’t show it. But don’t worry: surely if we send this episode to live in the wilderness with no supplies or protection except a hairbrush, everything will turn out just fine for everyone!

“Statistical Probabilities”: Ames How did Jack and the other genetically engineered mutants not predict this one: that their portrayal of people with mental health disorders was frankly appalling and they deserve to be at the bottom of the barrel where they can be jettisoned into space with the rest of the trash? Hmm?

“Tears of the Prophets”: Caitlin, Chris Somehow way too much and way too little happen simultaneously in the season finale, leaving us bored and exhausted at the same time. Also, this is how they kill off a beloved main character? It felt like a cheap afterthought. Frankly, Tasha Yar had it better, and that’s saying something.

“His Way”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake When we vehemently beg for a B plot, you know something’s wrong. From the extremely toxic start of a relationship we honestly didn’t need, to the WAY TOO MANY SONGS, this musical episode just hurt us. Sorry, Vic Fontaine, you’re not turning this no into a yes.

“Profit and Lace”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake How do you possibly get worse than the misogyny in “His Way”? By trying to make rape jokes out of it. Ferengi episodes tend to poorly handle sensitive topics to begin with, but this one was so inexcusable that it might actually be the worst of all Trek. But don’t listen to me: I’m clearly just an emotional fee-male.

—

Top Three Episodes

On the flip side, there were also way more true gems this season than we were expecting as well, with some of the most well regarded episodes packed into a short span of time. What a ride!

“Inquisition”: Jake We see the dark side of the spy world in this riveting episode that pulls a new rug out from under us with every twist. Say what you will about Section 31 going forward, but its introduction was riveting, the mindfuck did not disappoint, and Luther Sloan looked damn good in that jacket!

“The Sound of her Voice”: Caitlin Where DS9 failed so utterly with Vic Fontaine, they capitalized with Captain Cusak: a character we don’t even see on screen and yet is so well developed, voiced, and portrayed that we too were immediately captivated by her. A resounding win for Debra Wilson (see what I did there?).

“Rocks and Shoals”: Ames While the big 6-episode war arc mostly blended together, the standout was “Rocks and Shoals” and meeting our new friends: the deliciously sleazy Vorta Keevan and the startlingly sympathetic Jem’Hadar Remata’Klan. How often do you actually root for Dominion soldiers to come out okay? Well done.

“Honor Among Thieves”: Caitlin More fun spy shenanigans and some genuinely touching scenes with O’Brien and his Orion handler Bilby: how can you go wrong? Miles is best when he’s outside his comfort zone and suffering, after all. And this episode gets many extra points for introducing our new favorite character, Chester!

“Waltz”: Ames, Chris Marc Alaimo and Avery Brooks carry this episode all the way through space, into the caves, and out of all sanity. It takes some special skills to make such a talky, static plot feel so riveting, and they really made it an episode the likes of which the galaxy had never seen!

“In the Pale Moonlight”: Chris, Jake DS9 is at it best when it’s at its greyest, and Ben Sisko lives firmly in the grey. The impossible decisions made during the Dominion War stick with you well after the episode is over, churning around in your head until you have to make your own 2am log entry with a stiff drink in hand.

“Far Beyond the Stars”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake “Far Beyond the Stars” really breaks the mold for what Star Trek can be, and we were here for it! We can’t dole enough praise upon the acting, the directing, the design, the unconventional writing, the everything, but what brings it all home is a profoundly true core statement about racism that is still relevant today.

—

Only one season left of DS9, so keep your eyes focused on the wormhole for more from A Star to Steer Her By, listen to new episodes on Soundcloud, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and remove about five songs from every episode going forward!

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.17: Missions Reviewed, “Inquisition,” “In the Pale Moonlight,” and “His Way.”

In “Inquisition,” Bashir is repairing Chief’s shoulder after a kayaking accident (again) and preparing to go to a medical conference. When he wakes up for his trip he is remarkably groggy and matters are made worse when he is called to ops because Starfleet Internal Affairs, led by a Director Sloan, has come to investigate DS9’s senior staff as someone has been leaking information to the Dominion. 

After some time confined to quarters, Julian is just briefly questioned by Sloan, but all seems well. Returning to his quarters, he finds they have been searched, and he receives a cryptic message from O’Brien that Miles had been questioned for two hours, and ONLY about Julian. In a second interrogation, Sloan reveals that he believes Bashir was actually turned during his time in a Dominion prison, and has sublimated all memories of this, making him the perfect spy. Sloan admits that Bashir’s motivation is to save lives, hence using the genetically engineered think tank from “Statistical Probabilities” to try and convince the Federation to surrender. Bashir continues to deny, but Sloan, seemingly with no accountability to anyone but himself begins to raise the stakes. Things just become difficult when Julian is suddenly whisked away in a transporter, and finds himself with Weyoun on a Dominion vessel. The Vorta tells him that in fact he HAS been working for the Founders, but now he has been compromised. Bashir, still simply can’t remember any such programming.  Soon after though the Defiant arrives, and Kira and Worf beam over to rescue Bashir. When he’s back on the Defiant though, he is treated as a prisoner.  The crew has turned against him. When even O’Brien literally turns his back on Bashir, Julian reaches out to turn Miles back to him, and realizes that O’Brien doesn’t have the shoulder injury he just treated the day before. Everything disappears and a black-clad Sloan is standing with Julian in a holodeck. Sloan explains to Bashir that he runs a branch of Starfleet intelligence called “Section 31” and all of this has been to confirm Bashir’s loyalty for recruitment into the covert organization.

 Sloan promises Bashir will see him again. Back on DS9, Bashir realizes he’s been gone since the morning he woke up (which was actually after just an hour’s sleep to keep him off balance).  Sisko makes inquiries to Starfleet about Section 31, and the admiralty will neither confirm nor deny their existence. Sisko and Bashir decide they want to infiltrate this organization, so if 31 comes calling again, Sisko advises Bashir to join.

The introduction of something that will become a major plot point throughout the rest of Star Trek. Section 31 will of course continue to appear in DS9 for the rest of the show, we will find out they were already operating in the Earth Starfleet in the 2150s during “Enterprise.” Section 31 is responsible for thawing Khan and trying to provoke a war with the Klingon Empire in “Star Trek Into Darkness.” And finally, the existence and actions of S31 play heavily into the second season of “Discovery.” The Kafka-esque feel of this entire episode is perfect, even if it seems like this is something they would generally do to Miles for the annual “let’s screw with O’Brien” episode. Bashir is a perfect choice though- well placed, genetically engineered, has already made friends with men like Garak, and someone who replicates espionage on the holosuite. Can’t overstate how perfect William Sadler is as Sloan either. It’s a pointed discussion. A utopia like the Federation may not be able to exist without someone behind the scenes doing the wrong things for the right reasons.  At least one of out main crew would never do that, right?

“In the Pale Moonlight,” is told entirely as a personal log entry from Benjamin Sisko. He is talking about how “it all went wrong” when he posted a casualty report; the Federation/Klingon alliance is not doing well against the Dominion. Talking with Dax, he realizes they need to get the Romulans to break their non-aggression pact with the Dominion and come into the Alpha Quadrant alliance. Sisko is convinced that the Founders plan to invade Romulus when the main war is done, but will need proof to get the Romulans to act. He approaches Garak to see if anyone can get such records off of Cardassia, but Garak reports back that the Dominion has killed every operative he still as contact with on Cardassia. 

 Garak suggests faking the proof; he can get a blank Cardassian data rod, and he knows a forger who could build a holo program to demonstrate the “briefing” regarding turning toward Romulus. Sisko is resistant…until another casualty report comes, and Sisko realizes perhaps the ends do justify the means. They proceed with the plan which keeps having moral red flags pop up, but finally convince a Romulan senator to stop at the station and see the “evidence.” The senator analyzes the data and discovers the forgery. He leaves, potentially to tell his government that the Federation tried to trick them into the war, likely leading them to join the Dominion. The senator’s shuttle explodes on the way home, and the Romulans discover the forged rod, believing it to be real and the reason the Dominion destroyed the shuttle. Sisko knows it was Garak who killed the senator (and the forger on the side) and had really planned this from the beginning. But when the Romulans attack the Dominion, Garak tells Sisko they may have saved the Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost was one senator, one criminal, and the self-respect of one Starfleet Officer. 

Sisko closes out the dictation of his log:

“So… I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover up the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But most damning of all… I think I can live with it… And if I had to do it all over again… I would. Garak was right about one thing – a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it…Because I can live with it…I can live with it. Computer – erase that entire personal log."

I know I say this more than once during this show but: Holy shit. First there’s Avery Brooks’ performance throughout the episode. As he dictates the log he is just mesmerizing to watch. Andrew Robinson as Garak of course is fantastic. This is of course the origin of the internet meme “It’s a FAAAAKE!” from Senator Vrenek. 

And the moral conundrum is really captivating. This is an episode a lot of DS9 detractors use to point out how antithetical they believe DS9 is to “Gene Roddenberry’s vision.” I would argue they forget that classic Trek had many of the same tropes. Watch “Errand of Mercy” and how quickly Kirk and Spock are willing to risk the lives of what they believe to be simple peasants in order to stymie the Klingons. Or “A Private Little War” where Kirk provides rifles to a stone age tribe so the can fight a proxy war against a side supported by the Klingons. Kirk referring to himself as a “soldier” or his line from “A Taste of Armageddon,” “We can admit that we’re killers, but we will not kill today.” Yes, Trek offers a positive view of humanity’s future, but it also uses its science fiction setting to examine the human condition without ever saying humans are perfect. There is no way to examine the human condition without examining what we as a species are willing to do in war. As someone who still periodically has to assess what I did defending my county (and more than once found myself not meeting my own ethical standards) I appreciate Trek asking us to do that, asking us to take a look at ourselves, what we have done, and what we can live with.  I can live with it. I will learn to live with it.

Will you?

“His Way” introduces us to Bashir’s new holosuite program, a swinging 60’s Vegas club and lounge singer named Vic Fontaine. The AI in the program is remarkably astute and quickly sums up everyone Bashir introduces to “Vic.” Even Odo becomes intrigued when Vic looks at he and Kira, begins to ask about their status but shies away. Odo begins to go the holosuite to ask Vic for advice on Kira.

 They run through a series of exercises to help Odo learn to be “smooth,” and eventually program another 60s character, a torch singer based on Kira. Vic actually on his own reaches out to Kira to tell her to be in the holosuite to have dinner with Odo, and tells Odo that they are working with the hologram again.  The two are having a wonderful date when Odo begins to lament that this isn’t the real Kira. When he find out it is he storms out. The two of them meet on the promenade and begin to argue about whether or not they should try it again. “Well then after dinner, I suppose I should try to kiss you then!” Odo shouts. “Maybe!” Kira counters. “Why wait, maybe I should just kiss you now!” “Maybe you should!” and he does.  After five years of mooning over her, Odo and Kira have finally come together.

Oh. MY. GOD. How frickin’ sweet.  This episode is simply adorable, and the whole scene with them on the promenade is just lovely.  Always good to see your OTP (that’s internet talk- “one true pairing”) made canon.  It is just about damn time, and their joining is perfectly executed.  Also, my sincere and heartfelt thanks to whomever on the DS9 writing staff decided we needed to see Kira in a slinky 60s dress perform “Fever” while laying coquettishly across the piano Odo was playing. I just can’t thank you enough for that. 

From the larger Trek standpoint though, we are beginning to deal with questions on the sentience of AI.  Yes, The Doctor over on “Voyager” would seem to have been “awake” long enough to gain a self-awareness, but is Vic simply a hologram, or are these “lightbulbs” a new lifeform as much as Data was on TNG? There are some big SF philosophical questions going on behind this delightfully romantic episode.  

NEXT VOYAGE: Ancient Bajoran prophecy comes back into play as it is Prophet vs. Pah-Wraith in “The Reckoning.”

[unspectacularmarvels]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Missing Episodes: Series two, volume one

The U.S.S. Ostentatious arrives at the station, commanded by the roguishly handsome Captain Brett Lysander.  All the ladies - and even Dr Bashir - immediately start acting like giggling schoolgirls, ignoring all previous character development as they compete ruthlessly for his attention. However, Odo soon discovers the real purpose of Lysander’s mission into the Gamma Quadrant…

The crew travel back to 2019 and have a decidedly mediocre time of it.

Quark opens an anti-gravity roller disco.

Having been subjected to a marathon of all the Pink Panther films by her husband, Keiko decides to get her own back on O’Brien in a manner which you’ve long figured-out by now.

Jake’s florid attempts at love poetry are stolen by Odo and posted throughout the station, as the constable embarks upon a calculated campaign of acting like a monumental dick. 

Jadzia gets drunk at a Federation meet-and-greet, punches a Viscarian dignitary, vomits into the punchbowl and promptly passes out. Unfortunately for her, Viscarians are amorphous, gelatinous entities that can reproduce simply through physical contact with another life-form…

‘Rom’s Tale’: the character-based episode nobody asked for.

The crew visit yet another hippy-dippy, drum-circle loving commune of bland rustic villagers who insist on calling it ‘first meal’ rather than ‘breakfast.’ Then Bashir accidentally kills the village’s lucky squirrel and it becomes rather like ‘The Wicker Man.’

A trans-dimensional singularity (or whatever) turns the station into something akin to an M.C. Escher drawing. Anything to keep using the same stretch of corridor over and over to keep production costs down.

An old enemy of Quark’s takes him hostage in the bar, resulting in a ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’-style affair where Rom gets shot in the balls.

The replicator that repeatedly annoys Sisko with its lousy excuse for raktajino becomes sentient and embarks on a campaign to vex him further. With the safety of DS9 in the balance, it looks as though ol’ ‘Sisko Slap de Chienne’ may be coming out of retirement…

A sexually voracious entity strands Dax and Kira in a runabout, unwilling to let them go until they’ve explored each other in a ‘smoking-hot display of unbridled sapphic ecstasy - with extra licking.’ Inevitably, you’ll be bitterly disappointed with how this one pans-out.

A one-dimensional Bajoran artist guy/ douche arrives at the station where, over time, he proceeds to show the ever-cynical Kira the hidden beauties of life in a painfully banal manner. Meanwhile, a bounty is placed on Quark's Ferengi balls.

Garak persuades Bashir to model his new line of Starfleet-issue shorts.

Something major finally kicks-off with the Cardassians, with high-octane starship dogfights that we actually get to see, utterly compelling character and series development and no quaint subplots or life lessons to get in the way. Also, Dax stops wearing bras. A behind-the-scenes special that doesn’t really tell us anything we didn’t know before. A stand-alone ‘Space Christmas Special,’ narrated by a bespectacled, tweed-wearing Avery Brooks from his favourite armchair beside a roaring fireplace on Space Christmas Eve. Which of the crew has been naughty or nice this year? 

Will Quark receive a visitation from the ghost of his dead uncle, prompting him to temporarily mend his miserly ways and do something uncharacteristically charitable by the end of the show? Perhaps for that young, lame Bajoran orphan boy he chased off earlier...

Will Sisko and Jake ever make it to Earth in time to see in Space Christmas morn at home in New Orleans? 

Will Dax and Kira appear in matching sexy Space Elf outfits during the musical number? 

Will Bashir get any? 

Will Odo discover the hidden beauty and meaning of a humanoid festival that he initially dismisses because he’s outwardly grouchy but inwardly rather a sensitive soul? 

Will O’Brien get Keiko that thing she really wanted but he completely forgot to get her because he’s an accomplished mechanic but a bumbling husband and father? 

Will there be some kind of montage depicting the whimsical joys of Space Christmas throughout space-tinsel strewn corridors of the station?

And will Gul Dukat be paying a surprise visit to his friends on DS9 to spread Space Christmas joy? Snuggle-down with Brooks’ Book of Space Christmas magic and find out!

[tamekas-talk]

Fantasia And Danielle Brooks Cast In ‘The Color Purple’ Musical

Fantasia And Danielle Brooks Cast In ‘The Color Purple’ Musical Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks join the upcoming film adaptation of The Color Purple musical as Celie and Sofia. As part of the reveal, Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia in the original 1985 movie gave Brooks the news over Zoom. “I am here representing all things purple to tell you that you are our Sophia,” Winfrey said. “I’m so happy to pass whatever baton from 35 — almost 40 — years ago to you. And I know you’re gonna kill it.” Fantasia, who hit the scene as the American Idol Season 3 winner, will again play Celie who Whoopi Goldberg played in the film directed by Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film adaptation of Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. None of the actresses are strangers to the roles. Barrino played Celie in the original production on Broadway, replacing Kendra R.Miller during the spring of 2007. Brooks recently played Sofia in the Tony Award-winning revival, earning a Tony nomination for Best Performance By An Actress In A Featured Role In A Musical. Previously announced Taraji P. Henson will play Shug Avery in the new film adaption. Henson will join the previously announced Corey Hawkins as Harpo and H.E.R. as Squeak. It was also reported that H.E.R. was working with the film's creative team to write a new song for the film. Blitz Bazawule will direct the movie with a script by Marcus Carley. The story depicts the lives of African American families and relationships in early twentieth-century Georgia. The film will be released in 2023. We know its a classic, will you be watching? Read the full article

[videofeed]

Star Trek 6: How DS9's Odo Was In The Final TOS Movie (Three Times) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XvYq8i6_9o Constable Odo wasn't in Star Trek VI however the closing TOS movie comprises a number of nods to DS9's changeling, together with an uncredited cameo by the actor. [fwduvp preset_id="modern-skin-dark_videofeed_playlist" playlist_id="Star Trek 6"] In a method, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country featured three completely different sorts of appearances by Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Though the exact character of Constable Odo, who would not even debut until 1993 - two years after Star Trek VI arrived in movie theaters - wasn't throughout the movie, The Undiscovered Country featured a definite kind of shapeshifter and the Director's Cut of the film included a cameo by the late Rene Auberjonois, who performed Odo for seven seasons on DS9. The sixth and ultimate film starring the strong of The Original Series, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was concerning the end of the Cold War between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. But whereas Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the Starship Enterprise-A had been negotiating galactic peace with the Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner), a conspiracy between Starfleet, Romulans and Klingon dissidents framed Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForrest Kelley) for Gorkon's assassination. It was as much as Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to indicate Kirk's innocence and rescue him from imprisonment. The Enterprise crew then uncovered the conspirators and saved the lifetime of the model new Chancellor, Gorkon's daughter Azetbur (Rosanna DeSoto), guaranteeing the peace between the Federation and the Klingons, which could ultimate into the interval of Star Trek: The Next Generation over 70 years later. However, the extended Director's Cut of Star Trek VI that was launched on DVD, Laserdisc, and VHS featured a cameo by Colonel West, carried out by Rene Auberjonois. West was a Starfleet Officer who offered Operation Retrieve, a plan to rescue Kirk and McCoy from the Klingons, which was not permitted by the Federation President (Kurtwood Smith). When the president feared that such a rescue strive might ignite a full-scale battle, West memorably boasted, "Then quite frankly, Mr. President, we can clean their chronometers." At the conclusion of the Star Trek VI Director's Cut, the Klingon who tried to assassinate Azetbur on the Khitomer Peace Conference was revealed to be West incognito; the traitorous Colonel was really one of many conspirators and he was killed and uncovered by Montgomery Scott (James Doohan). Auberjonois isn't throughout the credit score for Star Trek VI, not even throughout the Director's Cut the place his character appears, and the actor was shocked to be taught his scenes had been restored throughout the prolonged mannequin. However, after 2009, solely the theatrical decrease of Star Trek VI with out West is on the market for purchase, although Colonel West's scenes may very well be seen on YouTube. As for a approach Auberjonois was strong throughout the film, the proficient actor occurred to be longtime buddies of director Nicholas Meyer, who invited him to play the operate of the Starfleet traitor. And as quickly as Auberjonois was part of the Star Trek household, he was rapidly strong as Constable Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Meanwhile, a predecessor to Odo appears in Star Trek VI: At the Klingon penal planet Rura Penthe, Kirk and McCoy encounter Martia, a Chameloid carried out by Iman. As a shapeshifter, Martia took on a number of varieties, along with aliens and Captain Kirk himself. Martia predated the Founders, Odo's race of liquid-based changelings from the Gamma Quadrant who based mostly the Dominion and have turn out to be the first villains of DS9. However, Martia is the one identified Chameloid in Star Trek canon and it was by no means clarified nor retconned whether or not or not Martia was moreover a Founder or whether or not or not Chameloids merely happen to be a very separate race of shapeshifters. In the film, Martia was memorably killed by the Klingons after she took Kirk's kind and brawled with the Captain (after she kissed him and teased that Kirk kissing himself "must have been your lifelong ambition"). Fascinatingly, Star Trek VI's Odo connection continues with actor Kurtwood Smith. After collaborating within the Federation President, Smith was strong in DS9 as Thrax, Odo's predecessor as Chief of Security when the home station was nonetheless under Cardassian administration and often known as Terok Nor. In the DS9 season 5 episode, "Things Past", when Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and his crew discovered themselves inhabiting Bajorian our our bodies in Odo's reminiscence of Terok Nor, it turned out Thrax was really the youthful mannequin of Odo himself. Indeed, Star Trek VI intriguingly comprises a lot of elements of Constable Odo that can in the future coalesce into Deep Space Nine's beloved shapeshifter.

[gplusbfics]

1994 Interview All About Garak & Andrew Robinson

I’ve seen this great interview posted a bunch of times online, but it’s alway seems to be as graphic scans, which I have a hard time reading, so when I actually got my hands on DS9 magazine Vol. 9, 1994, I was psyched. I could read it AND I could scan it! So here it is, with all the text, plus photos. I’ll be posting the photos all separately afterward, including a few that don’t fit. Enjoy!

I love Garak and Andy so much. Also, I love that this interview is all after Season 2 (and I believe before Season 3 aired), so you have Robinson saying things like “I wish I’d get to do more plots with Rene and Avery!” and “It’s going to really interesting when Garak’s secrets come out!” He he. It’s really zero surprise he wound up writing a book. Or that the book would be well written -- he uses great words in the interview, just popping in stuff like “apotheosis.” 

-Wendy 

According to his former superior in the Obsidian Order, Garak has a "rare talent for obfuscation." The same, fortunately, cannot be said of the man who plays him, Andrew Robinson. Given the chance, he willingly expounds upon the delights of playing this charming, yet devious, Cardassian. 

"This role has been quite surprising and wonderful," Robinson says. "The way the character is progressing is a delight for me. When I auditioned and got the part, I had no idea that it was going to be a recurring character. They've been writing really interesting things for Garak; each time that he appears, there's something more to play." 

What first attracted him to the role was "the mystery about the character. At the same time, there was also this wonderfully refined and urbane intelligence about Garak. Not only did he have a secret, but his secrets were very deep and potentially very interesting. I don't know where it's going from here, but I look forward to the day --- if the day ever does come -- when the truth about Garak emerges. I have a feeling that the secrets he has are going to be a great deal of fun to play." 

Because he didn't receive any back ground from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writers or producers, "I just created my own, so I had something to work from," says Robinson. "I went for the approach of something that was reptilian, someone with cold blood, who would have that same deliberate, measured style. In terms of mystery, I played 'I've got a secret.' The writers and producers have been taking what I'm doing and building from that, as well as whatever they have in mind for Garak, which really is the best. Very few shows do this. Very few."

Not surprisingly, Robinson's least favorite aspect of this role is enduring the makeup. "That's the worst part of it. Garak is a three-and-a-half hour makeup job. Sometimes I'll have a 2 or 3 a.m. call! There are seven prosthetic appliances that they put on, including the neck. It teaches you a lot of patience," he admits. "Once I'm in it -- and these are long days I put in on the set, 14 to 16-hour days sometimes --- I just have to 'Zen' out. Otherwise, if I start getting cranky, then I'm done; I can't act or do anything. I really have to move into an almost beatific state. I have lost weight, though; that's one good thing!" he adds, laughing, before relating a more serious makeup-related tale.

"When the earthquake hit in January, it was 4:30 a.m. in Los Angeles, and I was already in the makeup chair, along with Armin Shimerman [Quark] and a couple other actors. It was pretty bizarre: this earthquake hits, all the power goes out, and all these aliens in varying stages of makeup are milling about in the darkness! People like Armin and Ed Wiley, who was playing this Cardassian, couldn't get through on the phone to their families, so they just jumped into their cars -- Armin in his Quark makeup and Ed with his Cardassian makeup on -- and drove through the pre-dawn streets of Los Angeles. I can only imagine what the other motorists saw -- I think that would be more bracing than a cup of coffee!"

Robinson made his Deep Space Nine debut in the series' second-to-air episode, "Past Prologue." There, "plain and simple Garak" made first contact with Dr. Bashir (who immediately suspected him of being a Cardassian spy) and helped foil a fanatical Bajoran terrorist's plot. Interacting with the Klingon sisters Lursa (Barbara March) and B'Etor (Gwynyth Walsh) proved to be some of Robinson's favorite moments. "That was just a gas!" he exclaims. "We had a great time doing those scenes; I hope we can do that again." 

Garak next appeared in "Cardassians," where he was instrumental in uncovering a scandal concerning the abandonment of Cardassian orphans on Bajor after the war. "The best thing about that was the scene where he and Bashir go to Bajor and run into the orphans. We learned a little more about their culture, that children without parents have no status in Cardassian society, so they just abandoned them. The fact that Garak was faced with this, and realized that there is something very basically wrong about it, was great."

Although both Bashir and viewers alike still wonder which side (if any) Garak owes his allegiances to, Robinson thinks that "Garak's a good guy," and cites the second season episode "Profit & Loss" as "the turning point. When I got that script, I thought, 'Oh, I guess this is the end of Garak,' as I was reading. Then, I got to the end and he decides, no, he's not going to kill Professor Lang and her student dissidents, nor turn them in. He has the change of heart and lets them go. He was faced with that moral dilemma, and for most Cardassians, there would have been no dilemma; they would have just done what they were expected to do." The actor hastens to add, however, "That's not to say that the man doesn't have an... ambiguous past. He's very complicated, very ambiguous, and there's no doubt that there are things in his past that aren't very nice. He is, after all, Cardassian!" 

One of Robinson's greatest pleasures on Deep Space Nine, he says, has been working with Siddig El Fadil, who plays Dr. Bashir. "Siddig and I get along so well, and we have become very good friends from this show. The chemistry works out beautifully, where you have this older, reptilian mystery man who isn't what he seems to be, and this young innocent. It's easy to see what Bashir's getting from Garak: a political education. He's learning about the byzantine, labyrinthine subtleties and intricacies that go on in the station. 

"It's less clear, but equally strong, to see what Garak is getting from Bashir," he continues. "Bashir is a very decent person, a veru moral man, a responsible scientist with a soul. I think Garak is learning some of this, becoming socialized. I don't mean 'humanized,' because that would be a 'specist' thing to say. He's gaining a certain sense of compassion, a certain morality and that's very touching-that's what I love about the relationship." 

That being said, Robinson would also like to see Garak interact more with the rest of the Deep Space Nine crew. "It's a great company! I would love to do more with Rene Auberjonois; he and I have known each other forever. I think they'll have me do more with Quark this season, because we had some really nice scenes together in 'Profit & Loss.' Armin and I worked together just before DS9, in a production of Richard II. Also, I would love to do much more with Avery Brooks. He's a very powerful actor who has a lot of wonderful inner strength."

Garak's next two appearances, "Crossover" and "The Wire," showed two very different sides of the Cardassian. In the Mirror Universe, lntendent Kira Nerys rules Deep Space Nine, with Garak as her menacing second in command. "That wasn't hard to do," Robin.son says, "but that was interesting because I found the negative image to Garak: that Nazi, that typical Cardassian persona of the oppressor, the fascist, the totalitarian. There are no secrets to this man -- and no hiding any from him; he's just into sheer power. [The real] Garak is not into pure power at all; that's not his agenda! Now when I come back to Garak, I have more information about him, and he will be a deeper character as a result." 

Robinson's favorite episode to date, "The Wire" raised many questions about Garak's past and provided very few concrete answers. When an endorphin-releasing implant in Garak's brain begins malfunctioning, Dr. Bashir goes to great lengths to save his friend, ultimately discovering that Garak, among other things, used to be part of the Obsidian Order, a secret information-gathering Cardassian police force renowned for their brutal tactics. "'The Wire' was a dream," Robinson notes, "the type of episode I would like to do -- well, not all the time, because I would die! -- but frequently. That's the kind of episode that does indeed stretch my 'acting muscles,' because it demanded that I go inside myself and pull things out that perhaps didn't want to come willingly."

Originally a New England native, this "man behind the mask" recalls that "as long as I can remember, I wanted to be an actor. Not necessarily as a profession, but I always wanted to act. When I was 10, I went to this school in Rhode Island that had a wonderful drama program. It was run by a man who became my mentor. He was very supportive and helpful, and I just did plays and plays and plays." 

Robinson describes his college days similarly. "I had an art history teacher who encouraged me to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship to study acting in London. I did, and I got it against all odds," he explains. "When I was studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, I was doing a student production of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull; I was playing Constantine, this young man with a lot of troubles, and I had -- I can only call it an apotheosis -- this very deep emotional experience. That's when I decided I would act for a living." 

This led to several years of stage acting until Robinson landed his first movie role as the Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry. "I liked Clint Eastwood," he says, "but for me, the excitement was working with the director, Don Siegel. He was an amazing man, the best director I've ever worked with. Basically, he taught me whatever I now know about filmmaking. The character I played was very underwritten and very under-realized in the original script; it was only because Don Siegel was the kind of director he was that he hired me and said, 'OK, give me the character.' At the time, I had no idea the kind of chance he was taking. It just blows my mind!"

With his film career established, Robinson appeared in all manner of movies, TV shows and plays. One of his most visible roles came in an ABC TV movie, Liberace. Portraying the flamboyant entertainer, Robinson says, "was a great experience. It ended up being one of the best things I've ever done. You see, the art of acting, for me, is quite liberating. There's a lot of freedom have when you're behaving in the skin of another person, so to speak. That, to me, is the most interesting thing about being an actor . Also, I never wanted a nine-to-five job, and I'm grateful for the fact that I've been able to fashion a career where I work at jobs and a job doesn't work me." 

Robinson first attracted the notice of SF and horror aficionados with his work in Clive Barker's debut film, Hellraiser. "That was a wonderful experience," he says fondly. "For one thing, the character chance to play two characters, basically, the good and evil sides of the same person, was a thrill. The good brother, Larry, was quite repressed, and behind that repression was his evil brother Frank. 

"Also, working with Clive Barker -- who's a genuinely mad, eccentric genius ---was a lot of fun. It was his first film; he really didn't know much about filmmaking, so he really had to rely on people around him who had more experience, and he was open to that. It became a genuinely collaborative experience, and there was a lot of creativity flowing on the set, which doesn’t always happen.” 

His next genre appearance came in Child's Play 3, in which the evil doll Chucky arrives at a military school and terrorizes the cadets. Robinson played the sadistic barber, Sergeant Botnick, who gets a fatal shave from the diminutive killer. "A friend of mine, Jack Bender, was directing it and asked me to come in and do this character," Robinson remembers. "Jack's a very bright guy, and he saw something that I couldn't see at first reading. Then, we got working on it, and what happened was one of those fortuitous occasions when I made something really interesting, a character who was like nothing I had ever seen or done before. Sergeant Botnick the barber usually goes totally unnoticed, but it’s a piece of work that I'm very proud of." 

Similar circumstances led him to Trancers Ill as Colonel Daddy Muther . "Again, it was a friend of mine, Courtney Joyner, who wrote and directed it. I did it because he asked me to. He had written the part for me, and because he was a friend, we were able to create the character as we were shooting it. Unfortunately, the shooting circumstances were very pressured because resources were very limited. It was an extremely low-budget film, and also Courtney's first ." Robinson got along very well with his fellow cast, however. "Tim Thomerson, who played the lead, is terrific, a very funny, lovely guy. I enjoyed working with him a lot." 

While lately he has been appearing in projects with a definite SF slant, Robinson says he doesn’t have any one favorite genre of acting . "One of the things I appreciate about myself -- if I may say that -- is the range I have. It's something I've developed consciously, because I really love playing different kinds of characters. For example, in this British farce by Alan Bennett called Habeas Corpus, I played a guy who sells and adjusts false breasts! It was a funny, crazy role, just knock-down British humor. And in the middle of it, I went back to Rhode Island to do my one-man show, which is a very serious meditation based on if Jesus had kept a diary. This person/actor finds the diary, shares it with the audience, and ends up portraying different aspects of Jesus and His life. It's that kind of contrast that turns me on as an actor." 

To Robinson, the most enjoyable aspect of playing a recurring character like Garak is the chance "to explore the character from various angles, so that you go from 'plain and simple Garak' to an episode like 'The Wire,' which goes into a very deep, personal story about the man. You get the kind of information about a character that you rarely ever get in a single episode, or indeed a single film. The writers don't sit down with us and say, 'OK, this is where your character is going,' and I rather like that . It's a surprise every time I get a script!" 

In future episodes of Deep Space Nine, Andrew Robinson feels that viewers will eventually learn the truth about Garak. "Right now, all we do know is that he's in exile and he misses his homeland very much," he notes. "I know the producers have really become attached to the character, which means more and more of a commitment to me. For instance, this season I will be on the show several times. I think eventually, by the time the show ends, we will know where Garak is coming from. Perhaps we won't understand him completely in terms of his motives, or the 'why' of Garak, but I certainly think we will understand the 'what' of Garak, what he's doing on the station."

Was this not an awesome article and interview, or what??? -Wendy

[womenofcolor15]

Amber Guyger Gets A Hug & Forgiveness From Botham Jean’s Brother, And A Hug & A Bible From The Judge

We can't say we've ever seen anything like this before. The courtroom "grace" shown by Botham Jean's older brother and Judge Tammy Kemp in the aftermath of the Amber Guyger murder trial has the internet in a tizzy. Watch the actions that has some people scratching their heads and others praising 'Christian-like actions" inside.

Amber Guyger - a now-former Dallas cop and self described racist who often expressed her desire to hurt or kill people she hated - faced anywhere from five years to up to life in prison for the murder of her neighbor Botham Jean, an innocent and upstanding citizen whose apartment she walked into by "mistake". The jury rejected a "sudden passion" defense that would have reduced the sentencing range from 2 to 20 years. Prosecutors argued for a sentence of no less than 28 years — the age Jean would have turned on Sunday. Amber as convicted Tuesday, and ended up getting 10 years, and plenty of folks aren't happy about it saying the sentence is not enough.

Interestingly, the victim's teen brother, Brandt Jean, took the stand to read his statement on behalf of his slain brother, and he wasn't happy about the sentencing either. But for a totally different reason. He said:

"I'm not going to say I hope you rot and die, just like my brother — I personally want the best for you," Brandt Jean, 18, said. "I wasn't going to say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don't even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you, because I know that's exactly what Botham would want."

"If you truly are sorry," Botham's younger brother Brandt Jean told Guyger from the witness stand, "I know I can speak for myself, I forgive you."

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Jean's mother Allison Jean said she hoped Guyger's prison term would be a time of reflection for her and a chance for her to change her life. Jean blasted the Dallas Police Department and said their training needs to be overhauled.

"If Amber Guyger was trained not to shoot in the heart, my son would be alive today," she said. "He was no threat to her. He had no reason to be a threat to her, because he was in his own apartment."

Agreed.

Watch Brandt's statement, as well as judge Tammy Kemp's interesting comfort session she gave to Amber - as well as a bible - below:

  If only it was 100% likely that this EXACT same scenario would have occurred had the defendant been black and the judge and victim's family been white. Unfortunately, many don't think this same scene would have played out. And hereinlies the problem. Forgiveness, public displays of grace and teachable moments are all fine and good, as long as they are not solely afforded to white defendants. Or to proven racist defendants.

Rev. Cornell Brooks, former NAACP President & CEO, said it best:

I have preached #forgiveness for 25 years, BUT using the willingness of Black people to forgive as an excuse to further victimize Black people is SINFUL.

America should ask Black people forgiveness for serially asking African Americans to forgive sanctioned #PoliceBrutality. pic.twitter.com/OUJzoEYgr0

— Rev. Cornell William Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) October 2, 2019

Hmph.

More responses:

  No. She's a CONVICTED murderer. She is not a sympathetic figure deserving of pity. This is ridiculous.

I am disgusted that the judge crossed this line. She should be brought up for judicial review.

— Red™️ (@Redpainter1) October 2, 2019

This is why blacks will continue to always be last in this particular society. Nat Turner warned us that this mentality is extremely dangerous and in 2019 this is still the norm! I’m so use to this bullshit I can’t even be upset! Why be upset for them when they wanna hug her pic.twitter.com/ZbxiFRzdPc

— Carl Corleone (@CarlCorleone) October 2, 2019

next week: a hispanic single mom gets 5 years for unpaid parking tickets

— sexy bob hoskins photos (@Al_Boondy) October 2, 2019

i have seen niggas cry, beg, and even sing in court. a white women opens up the floodgates and all of a sudden, the courtroom is in tears ?!!. niggas be sent to jail without a person in the courtroom batting an eye everyday b.

— tesus (@mocassintobi) October 2, 2019

Religion is the problem.... Negros loving thy neighbor.

— Avery Yahdeen Wiley (@Yahdeen2) October 3, 2019

Did the judge hug Botham mom also?

— Tony Banks (@Banks429) October 2, 2019

I have never seen a judge hug a defendant and I’m in court every day. This is inappropriate.

— elatticus (@elatticus) October 3, 2019

absolutely agree on the 10 years - and that it’s one thing to come from a family member / the judge is responsible for justice.

— emily hodges (@elh2005) October 3, 2019

  How Botham Jean’s brother chooses to grieve is his business. He’s entitled to that. But this judge choosing to hug this woman is unacceptable. Keep in mind this convicted murderer is the same one who laughed about Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, and killing ppl on sight. https://t.co/Nu5QGOIR1K

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 2, 2019

Bruh if a black man had killed a white lady he'd be doing life. Period. This shit is Mexican soap opera level bad

— Uncle Kola (@kvng_stunner) October 3, 2019

Why are black ppl expected to have superhuman levels of forgiveness/compassion for literal murderers?? What exactly did guyger do that made ppl think she was worthy of forgiveness?? Why are they extending sympathy to someone who had no sympathy for the man she murdered?

— Ana R (@AnaRooot) October 2, 2019

Photo: AP

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2019/10/03/amber-guyger-gets-a-hug-forgiveness-from-botham-jean%E2%80%99s-brother-and-a-hug-a-bible-from-the

[njawaidofficial]

Here’s How Teen Shows Like "Degrassi" Try To Get School Shootings Right

https://styleveryday.com/2018/03/23/heres-how-teen-shows-like-degrassi-try-to-get-school-shootings-right/

Here’s How Teen Shows Like "Degrassi" Try To Get School Shootings Right

Degrassi: Next Class

Netflix

Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon remembers the day executives at the WB informed him that the third season finale of his wildly popular show, about a vampire hunter and her supernatural friends, would be delayed. It had been four weeks since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre — an attempted bombing and mass shooting that killed 15 — sparked a nationwide debate over gun control and the effects of violent entertainment. The episode’s plot included a school explosion and a scene in which armed students attack the mayor, so out of sympathy for victims and fear of copycat killings, the network broadcast a rerun instead. Another Buffy episode from that season, called “Earshot,” featured a suspected school shooter, and its airdate was also rescheduled.

Whedon understood the decision. “I was like, We shouldn’t say boo about it because of course they should [postpone],” Whedon told BuzzFeed News in a recent interview, recalling the “horror” and “sense of hopelessness” he felt in the aftermath of Columbine.

It wasn’t the last time an episode of a teen series would face controversy following a school shooting. Four months after a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Glee aired an episode in which students go on lockdown after hearing gunshots. While co-creator Ryan Murphy praised it as “the most powerful, emotional Glee ever,” some Sandy Hook parents criticized the episode for coming “too soon” after the tragedy. (In the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, Murphy found himself in a similar situation, deciding to tone down the graphic visuals from an episode of his show American Horror Story: Cult that featured a mass shooting scene.)

After last month’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Paramount Network delayed the premiere of Heathers, a television series remake of the 1988 cult film about a pair of teenagers who murder their classmates. “Out of respect for the victims, their families and loved ones, we feel the right thing to do is delay the premiere until later this year,” the cable network said in a statement.

The premiere of the TV show Heathers has been delayed after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Paramount Network

School shootings aren’t going away, and the conversation over how they’re portrayed on television isn’t either. While politicians and cultural critics, including President Trump, have criticized Hollywood for “glorifying violence,” showrunners and directors told BuzzFeed News they think carefully about how they’re depicting shootings.

Whedon, a vocal NRA opponent who says he’ll attend this weekend’s March for Our Lives in Washington, DC, said “actual deadly accessible guns are the issue,” not the entertainment industry. Still, he decided not to prominently feature the use of firearms on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, unless they were in the hands of villains. “When we were making Buffy, we actually had a chance to say, ‘Oh, we can actually take a very hard stance here,’” Whedon said. “It’s not a cop show. We’re not wed to the idea of the shootout in the alley.” Throughout the show, Buffy refuses multiple times to use a gun against her enemies. (“These things? Never helpful!” she says about firearms in a Season 6 episode.)

@joss / Twitter / Via Twitter: @joss

In the aftermath of Columbine, Whedon didn’t think his show would provoke copycat killings, because the weapons were portrayed in a negative light. In the episode “Earshot,” Buffy finds a classmate assembling a rifle in the school’s clock tower. She believes he is going to kill their fellow students, but it turns out “the school shooter angle in the episode was a red herring,” Whedon explained. The boy actually intends to kill himself, but Buffy talks him out of it and immediately dismantles his weapon.

But Whedon acknowledged that viewer reaction is hard to predict. In the 2002 episode “Seeing Red,” Buffy is shot and beloved character Tara Maclay is killed by Warren Mears, a misogynist outcast. At the time, Whedon assumed that a bad guy using a gun couldn’t lead to copycat behavior. “He represented the worst in everything, so I didn’t think people were going to be like, Hey, let’s jump on that bandwagon!” Whedon said. But that was in 2002. Now, given the frequency of mass shootings across the country, he isn’t so sure: “But god knows what I’ve learned lately is that bad examples don’t seem to throw people off.”

Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) confronts a student with a gun in the episode “Earshot” on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The WB

Asked what advice he’d give to someone writing a school shooting storyline today, Whedon stressed respect for the characters and for the gravity of the situation: “If you’re in the head of a person who’s trapped in a classroom, if you don’t let genre tropes outweigh the physical and mental experience of the people you’re filming, then you have a shot at saying something useful.”

For Whedon, the Parkland students turned activists call to mind some of the messages he was trying to convey in his work: “I spent most of my career writing about teenagers who would lay down their lives for each other and would stand up to all injustice, and I thought I was writing fantasy.”

Similarly, Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn — two of the Canadian showrunners behind Netflix’s Degrassi: Next Class — said they find the Parkland survivors “deeply moving” and plan to incorporate elements of their activism into the forthcoming season of the high school series. The two said it’s “highly likely” they will explore a school shooting, too.

“It’s something that’s happening with greater frequency, and it’s happening to teenagers … and our attitude on the show has always been, whatever is out there affecting our young people, we should be talking about it on Degrassi,” said Schuyler.

The pair previously tackled school shootings in the first season of Degrassi: Next Class and in an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation. “Time Stands Still,” perhaps the best known episode of the show, saw Jimmy Brooks (played by now-rapper Aubrey “Drake” Graham) shot by a troubled classmate. When crafting the story around that episode, Sohn said they were “very concerned” about the possibility of inciting a “copycat situation,” but pursued the storyline to portray how access to guns, coupled with an environment of bullying, “can be a pressure cooker for some of these kids to explode.”

Jimmy Brooks (played by now-rapper Aubrey “Drake” Graham) is shot by a classmate.

DHX Media

“We do not want to glorify things, and we don’t want to sensationalize them,” Schuyler said. When writing the aforementioned school shooting episodes, the showrunners consulted with Barbara Coloroso, an expert on bullying and an author who published a book on the issue soon after the Columbine massacre. They also spoke directly to teenagers with the goal to write material that would resonate with and accurately reflect their young viewers. “Hopefully as storytellers, we are being respectful enough to all sides of the story,” Schuyler added.

Jimmy Brooks (Drake) is paralyzed after being shot by a classmate on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

CTV

Although Schuyler and Sohn feel it’s their duty to tackle issues that teenagers go through, they have no plans to portray anything “overtly political.”

“The mandate of our show is to sort of take what’s happening in the environment politically and make the political personal,” said Schuyler. “We wouldn’t address gun control per se, but we will look from a particular character’s point of view at how damaging the misuse of guns can be and how damaging it can be when bullying isn’t dealt with at an early stage.”

Some showrunners and producers looking to portray gun violence and mass shootings have turned to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and often works with television producers and writers to create storylines for shows like ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Wife.

Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) consoles a young boy who accidentally shot his playmate on Grey’s Anatomy.

ABC

For Avery Gardiner, copresident of the Brady Campaign, it’s just as important to depict the everyday shootings that occur across the United States — and not just high-profile mass shootings.

While ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy featured a storyline about a mass shooter who murders two of Dr. Meredith Grey’s colleagues, a 2016 episode centers on a young boy who accidentally shoots his playmate after finding the weapon in his mother’s drawer. It was a plotline the Brady Campaign consulted on. And immediately following the episode, actor Ellen Pompeo urged the importance of keeping guns unloaded and properly stored, away from children, in a PSA. The collaboration wasn’t without criticism. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action condemned the Grey’s episode and the anti-gun messages “permeating television programming and film,” writing: “Thankfully, the episode was immediately followed by a Brady Center ad, alerting viewers to the fact that the preceding program was intended as propaganda.”

Gardiner also stressed the need for shows that depict the reality of how shootings affect the families of victims. Shows like The Chi, a Showtime drama created by Lena Waithe about life in Chicago’s South Side, for example, portrays the factors that might lead one to turn to guns — and how deaths resulting from gun violence affect victims’ loved ones.

“The realities of that violence and how it tears communities apart is something that Hollywood should be showing on TV,” Gardiner continued. “It’s an American problem that we need to be solving.”

LINK: How One New Netflix Series Shows Teen Gun Violence Is Bigger Than Just Parkland

LINK: Survivors Of The Florida Shooting Will Hold A Nationwide “March For Our Lives” To End School Shootings

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1907.22: Missions Reviewed, “Explorers,” “Family Business,” “Shakaar,” “Facets,” and “The Adversary.”

Long one tonight! We took a run at the end of season three starting with “Explorers.” Sisko reads about Bajorans of some 800 years before building solar sailing ships to explore their solar system, and possibly even making it as far as Cardassia. 

 He decides to build one to ancient specification (adding only a gravity web to the floor because weightlessness makes him queasy) and see if he can make it work. He invites Jake, who is initially reluctant to join, but then gets some news that makes him want to hang out with his father.  As they set sail, Jake tells Ben that he has been accepted to a writing fellowship back on Earth. Meanwhile on DS9 Bashir is busy flirting with a new Dabo girl named Leeta when Dax tells him the Lexington is coming to dock.

 Bashir realizes the woman who beat him out for head of his class is on board, and he prepares to meet her.  She walks past him as if she doesn’t recognize him. Ben reads Jake’s story and is impressed, recommending he take the fellowship. Jake says he’s worried about his dad though and may wait a year. Besides, there’s an freighter captain he thinks Ben should meet.  Before they can finish the conversation, there’s a malfunction and the ship seems to slip into warp. On DS9, after a charming drunken session with O’Brien, Bashir confronts the other doctor to find that she thought “Julian Bashir” was an Andorian. She’s excited to meet Julian for real, and is envious of the long term projects he can undertake. Jake and Ben are lost somewhere in space when suddenly three Cardassian warships appear.  Dukat hails them to reveal that tachyon eddies in the Bajoran system have in fact accelerated them at warp speed right into the Cardassian system. Coincidentally, Cardassia was about to announce the have discovered an ancient Bajoran crash site on their homeworld.

There is a lot of significant stuff going on in this episode. Leeta, who will become a staple of future season and Rom’s wife, is introduced. Though not named, Kassidy Yates is introduced as an idea, and we will see her in the next episode, beginning her long courtship and eventual marriage to Ben. Jake as a writer begins to really flourish setting the stage for his future as a correspondent during the Dominion War. It’s almost enough to make one ignore how little sense the rest makes. OK- 800 years earlier Bajorans built an airtight solar wind sail ship, literally out of lumber. How did they get it off the surface of the planet and into space? But, let’s assume they had chemical rockets that could survive leaving an atmosphere to deliver their wood ships into space, a solar sail would have to be kilometers long.  But, let’s say it’s special reflective material; when the tachyons begin to accelerate them to warp, what keeps the acceleration from crushing them into a thin red paste on the back wall? Ben has gravity control, no inertial dampeners 800 years ago. And assuming they DO survive, I would assume the Cardassian system is several hours at mid-warp from Bajor. Doesn’t take them long here. Then, there’s a crash site on Cardassia; how did the wooden ship survive re-entry? Though, maybe the acceleration DID paste the crew and throw the ship through the Cardassian atmosphere hard enough to crater in.  Holy Prophets that’s tragic.

Quark and Rom have to deal with “Family Business” when a Liquidator named Brunt from the Ferengi Commerce Authority shows up to seize their business because family on Ferenginar is causing trouble. 

 It seems Quark’s mother has been earning profit, illegal in Ferengi society for a woman. She seems to be…ugh, wearing clothes too! Brunt tells Quark he has to get her to confess, and then pay back the profit she made.  On DS9, Sisko meets Kassidy Yates, and they agree to coffee.  While there, she seems restless. Seems she forgot she’s supposed to listen to a broadcast from her brother out on Cestus III. It seems he is part of a league playing an obscure Earth sport called “baseball.” Sisko is smitten. On Ferenginar, Quark has discovered that “Moogie” has made more profit than they thought. MUCH more. He plans to turn her in despite the fact it will ruin him, but she cuts him in on the profits. She confesses and turns some over, but splits the rest with Quark…mostly; she tells Rom there may be some more even than Quark found.

A neat little look at Ferengi society which of course features the marvelous Jeffrey Combs as Liquidator Brunt (one of no less than seven different Trek characters he played). 

SNL’s Andrea Martin plays Moogie here, but will not reprise the role later due to makeup issues. We see Ferenginar is constantly raining, and the traditional house greeting of “welcome to my home; what’s mine is mine” is given. The whole episode will prove to kick off some interesting turns for Ferengi society.

Kai Winn comes to DS9 to see Kira, as her old friend and cell leader “Shakaar” is causing trouble in Kira’s home town.  The minister of the Provisional Government has died, leaving Winn not only as Kai, but as political leader. She makes some changes which will pull some farm equipment out of Kira’s province, and away from the farmer Shakaar. He won’t give it back. Winn expects Kira to talk him into it, but instead she negotiates a meeting with Shakaar to find a compromise. 

Winn dismisses that and sends in security forces to seize the equipment, causing both Kira and Shakaar to gather up the old cell and go back on the run. Sisko refuses to intervene in what Kai sees as a test of her authority. She scrambles more troops into the area, and discord begins to mount, risking a civil war. Shakaar approaches one of the Colonels chasing him, and they realize how futile this is. The colonel brings Shakaar back…with full military support as he decides to run for the position of First Minister displacing Winn.

  I love how Kira can basically start a civil war on Bajor (as much as I hate Winn) and then just come back to the station when it is all over. It is a tight episode though that really makes you swell your dislike of Kai Winn, and gives Louise Fletcher yet another great opportunity to be loathsome.  Shakaar of course is played by Duncan Regehr, once a staple of tv sf and genre: TNG, V the Series, Disney’s Zorro. I thought he had faded away, but it turns out he is in fact now a very successful painter with art on exhibition all over the world.

“Facets” brings us to Jadzia Dax undergoing a Trill ritual where the memories of each specific host are taken from the symbiont and placed temporarily in another host. This allows a Trill to “meet” all the previous hosts. She selects various people close to her on the station to house the various personalities (including sexually coercing Quark into participating…and then assigning him a female host). 

 Things get dark when Joran-the short lived host we learned was a psychotic murderer-goes into Sisko, and tries to kill Dax, but it becomes worse when Curzon enters Odo and they two of them merge into a single entity. One that does not intend to return to the Symbiont. Meanwhile, Nog is working on a preliminary Starfleet exam, and ends up failing. Rom realizes Quark rigged it to keep the boy out of Starfleet, but Rom gets Sisko to administer the test again, setting him on the path to Earth next season. 

Jadzia confronts Odo/Curzon, and realizes that Curzon is ashamed because when he initially failed her out of the symbiosis program it was because he loved her. She accepts his love and tells him she loves him too-as a part of her. An abashed Odo meets her later, admitting that the sensory input of Curzon was tempting, but she thanks him as she now has Curzon’s memory of being part of Odo, and what it is to be a changeling.  

The Dax stuff is fun here, if a little contrived, but we get some great performances out of each of the stars as they assume the personalities of the hosts. Rene Auberjonois is particularly effective as Curzon, though Avery Brooks is downright sinister as Joran. The b-story with Nog is neat, as it is such a great bit of character development for the annoying Ferengi kid from season 1 who is now on his way to a career in Starfleet.  Go Nog!

And season 3 comes to an end when “The Adversary” makes itself known. Sisko is promoted to Captain while a Federation ambassador visits the station. 

The ambassador mentiones a hostile race, the Tzenkethi, have had a coup, and may restart what were apparently rather brutal hostilities with the Federation. Sisko takes the ambassador out on a flag waving mission along the Tzenkethi border with the Defiant, but O’Brien soon notices strange things are afoot. They realize the ambassador is actually a Changeling, and a hunt through the ship starts to try to keep him from his real mission- using the Defiant to attack the Tzenkethi  and occupy the Federation so the Dominion can make its move. The crew becomes more paranoid as they begin to suspect any of them could be the shapeshifter. A very Carpenter-esque blood test scene happens and Commander Eddington is id’d as the culprit.

 They soon find Bashir locked away though, and realize the Bashir who conducted the test was the Changeling. Odo liquefies to chase him down, as Sisko prepares to self-destruct the Defiant to prevent war with the Tzenkethi.  Odo stops the enemy in engineering, and for the first time in history a Changeling harms another Changeling as Odo kills the other to save the ship.  As the invader dies he tells Odo, “it’s too late; we are everywhere.”

The “Thing” like horror aspects of this episode play off pretty well, keeping you guessing who may or may not be the Changeling at any given time. The paranoia we see the crew experience is shared by us as viewers at the end as we realize just how prevalent the threat from The Dominion may be, leaving a very disquieting end to season three. We have to talk here though about Sisko not becoming a Captain until S3. Really? Come on Trek, your first Black commanding officer leading a TV show, and you left him a Commander for three years? At least now Sisko has the rank, he has the goatee, and as we head into season 4, we get the shaved head; Sisko will soon evolve into his final form!

NEXT VOYAGE: Season 4 begins with more Klingons that you can shake a Bat’leth at as paranoia about the Dominion threat leads the Empire to pursue “The Way of the Warrior.” Best of all?  WORF!!!

[flickdirect]

In 1987, the movie Lethal Weapon brought us the comedy/action team of Mel Gibson (Braveheart) and Danny Glover (Shooter) and it was so genius it spawned three sequels. Almost 20 years after the last film hit theaters, the powers that be (seemingly out of fresh ideas) decided to make it into a television series. Season One aired this past year and while it will never live up to the films it had a solid enough premise and development to make it a modest success. Considering it had such large shoes to fill, I'd say that's a big accomplishment.

The best thing the production team did was not try to recreate the successful movies. Besides the basic details, the television show had to add so much more detail and managed to do it well. We needed to be invested in the characters as much as the storylines and the writers gave us a more intricate backstory for the main characters than was developed for the films.

While Martin Riggs (Clayne Crawford; Rectify) has a subconscious death wish after the tragic accident that killed his pregnant wife, Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans; My Wife and Kids) is looking for a low-stress life after suffering a heart attack while in the delivery room when his youngest child was born. Both men have a "new lease on life" but they choose to manifest it in different ways.

Part of what makes the show work is the easy chemistry between Crawford and Wayans. Although not the same as Gibson and Glover, They do manage to have a rhythm the flows nicely which helps to enhance the weekly episodic show. Their banter and mild bickering remind one of an old married couple but it doesn't get overly annoying.

The two leads are surrounded by a solid supporting cats including Keesha Sharp (Are we There yet?) as Trish Murtaugh and Kevin Rahm (Mad Men) as their boss, Brooks Avery. Both compliment the duo well and help to enhance the series. Jordana Brewster (Fast and Furious Franchise) also adds an interesting element as she plays Psychiatrist Maureen Cahill. Unlike the films, Cahill becomes a confidant to Riggs instead of a constant target for pranks and such. She brings out an emotional depth from Riggs that makes him more interesting to the viewer.

For a television series, the production value is excellent with various special effects that rival many feature films in theaters today. This is rather surprising since television generally has a smaller budget than films, so it's a testament to the crew that they manage to do so much with limited resources. Granted, not everything is comparable to the movies but that is to be expected.

Even though the Blu-ray is presented in 1080p high definition video with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, the picture quality is somewhat sacrificed for the sake of compactness. Since the 18 episodes plus extras are loaded onto three discs, there isn't much room for the best quality. Though most won't miss or notice the reduction in video quality, the most discerning eye will. Having said that, there is still a clean picture with varied colors. The DTS-HD Master audio 5.1 is sharp and clear with the dialogue relegated to the center channel and the background and effects sitting in the side and rear channels. The extras are spread across the three discs and include a gag reel, deleted scenes, an extended pilot and Reloading Lethal Weapon, which is the only extra of any real substance.

Fans of the original movies will want to compare the show with the films but doing so would be detrimental to any chance of enjoying the series. Giving it a fair shot on its own, one will find it to be a decent piece of work with a lot of thought and time put into its writing and production.

Grade: C+

About Allison Hazlett-Rose Allison Hazlett-Rose has always had a passion for the arts and uses her organization skills to help keep FlickDirect prosperous. Mrs. Hazlett-Rose oversees and supervises the correspondents and critics that are part of the FlickDirect team. Mrs. Hazlett-Rose attended Hofstra University where she earned her bachelors degree in communications and is a member of the Florida Film Critics Circle.

Read more reviews and content by Allison Hazlett-Rose.

via FlickDirect Entertainment News and Film Reviews

[uss-recovery]

S1 E1: The Emissary, Part 1

... and so it begins!

I’m writing up my thoughts on the first few episodes quite a while after I first watched them, but I also want to get screencaps, so I’m going back through the episode and I’ll have my memory well refreshed. Alright. Let’s go.

(putting all of this under a Read More because it’s LONG)

Title crawl! Conveniently, I just re-watched the Borg episodes of TNG. I’m glad they built on the shared universe

Sisko!!! there is my boy toniiiight

On a more serious note, I’m very interested in him. I’ve heard a lot of good things, and I think he’s going to be a complex and well-written character

Is he captain or first officer?

That’s a way to start a show! wowza. They don’t usually deal with the aftermath of war or conflict in Star Trek. I guess that’s a core difference between DS9 and its predecessors- DS9 is all about consequences. They don’t fly on to the next star system once the battle’s over; they’re the ones cleaning up and sorting out the mess afterwards. It’s also the first Trek show not on the Enterprise!

There’s something very distinctive and kind of weird about Avery Brooks’s voice. I don’t know how to describe it- he enunciates very clearly, and there’s almost a meter or rhythm to the way he says his lines. I don’t dislike it, but I’m not used to it yet

I know already that I am going to LOVE Jake and Sisko’s relationship. I am so happy that they wrote a captain/commander who has an immediate family and had a lasting, dedicated, loving romantic relationship (while it lasted :(( ). Also, this is one of the least ugly outfits they dress Jake in. The poor kid has to wear so many hideous “space ‘90s” jumpsuits

She!!!!! They!!!! That’s it that’s the show right there. Also, what a cute screencap. Kudos to me, you’re all welcome

HELL YEAH HELL YEAH HELL YEAH

it’s DS9 we’re allowed to say “hell” now

That’s a nice shot! I wish I knew how to make gifs- it’s the pan that really makes the shot, but it would probably make this a terrible post to load anyways. Are the slopes on the docking pilons supposed to look like Cardassian neck ridges, because they do, and that’s cool

O’BRIEN!! I knew he was gonna be here, but it’s cool anyways. The station is trashed

Sisko’s “what the hell is going on, aliens are weird, you’re a weird creepy old man” face

and his scary “I may be smiling but i can stop smiling really quickly” smile

and of course Kira has one of her own! I already like her. I like that she’s very forward and honest, and I think her relationship with Sisko is going to benefit from that honesty. For the more diplomatic position he holds, he’s better at playing nice than she is, but neither of them like to have to.

Use of the word “God” counter: 1! This ain’t Roddenberry’s Star Trek no more

“So this is the fresh hell i signed up for! Won’t it be fun.”

oh no it’s the sheriff!!! I mean, the constable!! I mean, the security chief! At this point, Odo’s the Wild West sheriff in his boom town, barely keeping the rabble at bay and keeping his own brand of justice that’s a little bit off from the law. Now I’m imagining Odo in a cowboy hat and I don’t like it

Compared to other shows, DS9 changes very little from the pilot to the main episodes. Kira gets a new (better) haircut, but the main characters’ backgrounds and personalities come mostly intact. Quark especially so- Armin Shimerman stepped fully and comfortably into the character from episode one. His performances throughout the show are nuanced, consistent, and impressive, especially having to act through extensive facial prosthetics

Sisko’s little tic when O’Brien mentions Picard... good acting, good acting

and he is PISSED. you can tell just from the way he walks. good acting, good acting

tHE PICARD MANEUVER! Hello, jumpsuits. I’m glad they have this scene between Sisko and Picard. It hurts to watch, because if you’ve watched TNG, you’ve probably become attached to Picard (as I have), and so you feel bad for him because Wolf 359 wasn’t his fault. However, having seen its effects on Jake and Sisko, you also see Sisko’s side and understand why he’s still angry at Picard. Conflicts work well when both sides are right, but it’s harder to watch because of that.

Sidenote: Picard pronounces “Bajor” wrong. Also, he has tea! because of course he does. He’s Picard, that’s the Picard-iest thing to do, and it makes him and Sisko seem more different, which is the goal of this scene as much as it is to move the plot forward. Picard is a solitary, reserved man of words, wheras Sisko has baggage (both from his past and in the form of Jake) and is a direct, emotional man of action.

This scene further delineates Sisko from Picard and defines Sisko as a character. He understands the practicalities of running a space station, he understands economics, and he is willing to be mean to Quark to make Quark do what the station needs. Also, Quark as a community leader is a hilarious idea

It also shows Quark and Odo’s relationship, which is amazing. They are an odd little team of two, in a charmingly dysfunctional way

aaaaaand there, Sisko has started to earn Kira’s begrudging and hard-won respect, and in an impressively short amount of time. He’s good at reading people. Kira needs someone to listen to her and take her concerns seriously, and also to be able to match her bellicosity and think of solutions she hasn’t considered already. They’re also an odd little team of two, though in a functional way this time

I wanna know who did the matte paintings because damn

Ok I found out it was Syd Dutton! He’s one of the regular matte painters throughout the history of Trek- I recommend checking out his Memory Alpha or IMDB pages!

The ‘90s... it burns... also, Sisko’s “what the hell is going on, aliens are weird, you’re a creepy alien” face is back

Sisko is sensitive and emotional in a way that is unique to himself. He has clear boundaries between his personal and professional life, as is appropriate; when he is with Jake or in his flashback with Jennifer, we get to see a completely different side to him than we do when he is in command. When on the job, he is powerful, a little intimidating, direct, and quick-thinking. When at home, he is still completely himself, but calmer and more open with the playful and affectionate sides of his nature. The more I think about it, the more I like what Mr. Brooks and the writers are making of Sisko.

The gang’s all here! Terry Farrell is so pretty. Geez. And season one puppy Bashir makes his appearance, already gawking, as he will continue to do for like twenty episodes. I really like him, though, even if he’s kind of annoying- he’s still endearing in his own way.

I like how Bashir looks at Sisko and then tries to kind of back off about asking Dax out. We don’t see Sisko’s face, which makes it amusing to imagine what Julian sees there that makes him (more) nervous

Also, I love their friendship. Sisko relaxes around her, and Dax can make jokes and poke fun at him. Dax’s amusement whenever people are attracted to her is also something I like- she’s totally in control of herself and her relationships, and she isn’t bothered much by Julian or Quark or anyone. Of all the main characters of DS9, Jadzia is really the ladies’ man. Or the gentlemen’s lady. Or the anyone’s anyone, really, but the phrase doesn’t work as well. Maybe the anyone’s worm.

Oh, Julian. No, Julian. Don’t call people’s planets backwaters to their faces. Especially not to Major Kira. She could kill you with a look, and you are easily intimidated.

Dr. Julian Bashir Mood™: I am very frightened but also you are hot

That’s gonna be his Mood™ for... a while.

Also, Let Kira Cuss Everyone Out 2kForever. Reasons they should have made a DS9 movie: so Kira and Sisko and O’Brien could all unleash their inner sailor and just have a GO at Gul Dukat (yes yes he will probably die within the series, but it would have been amazing)

Picard beaming O’Brien off the Enterprise :’)

Gul Dukat is a slimy sonuvagun and I’m glad Sisko is up to the challenge of outwitting him

Solving your problems, grumpy-Federation-officer-on-a-beaten-up-Cardassian-space-station style!

Alright, I’m going to end this post before it overloads my computer. I’m not sure where episode one officially ends, but I’m about halfway through the pilot. This is a lot of fun, and I’m getting some great screencaps, so I’ll say this post has been a success. Now, let’s see if it’ll upload...

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1906.09: Missions Reviewed, “Paradise” and “Shadow Play.”

In “Paradise,” Chief O’Brien and Commander Sisko are scounting for planets when they pick up readings of a small human colony. Beaming down they immediately find theit tech doesn’t work. The colony, led by a woman named Alixus, crashed on this world a decade before, and the planet’s fields blocking all EM has meant them living by the sweat of their brows and the toil of the soil.

 Sisko begins to notice though that Alixus is far more interested in her Luddite philosophy being followed than actually helping her people survive. Meanwile, Kira and Dax find the ship that had Sisko and O’Brien flying at warp, and trace it back to the planet.  When Sisko is locked in the town hot box for non-conformity, O’Brien goes looking for the source of the dampening field, only to find it is artificial and controlled by Alixus.  She was even able to send the Runabout away hoping to add two strong, healthy men to her colony. Kira and Dax find them, and Sisko will take Alixus back to face charges for endangering the lives of her people. They however will stay, and likely keep their way of life. The last scene is chilling though as Sisko and crew beam up, and two children young enough to have been born here look wistfully at the place the landing party stood.

A very solid character piece that does a great job presenting the quiet will of Benjamin Sisko. His passive defiance of the cult leader Alixus is Avery Brooks giving one of his best performances. When he chooses to put himself back in the box rather than wear the homespun colony clothes that would earn him a drink of water, it’s captivating. 

One might be tempted to connect Alixus’ wariness of tech to beloved characters like Doctor McCoy, but as much as Bones bitched about the transporter, you would never have seen him eschew medical technology. A very decent stand alone episode, examining how a cult of personality can bend a population to their will.

“Shadow Play” shows us the DS9 crew has not learned their lesson about sending two crewmembers off alone in a Runabout as Dax and Odo go exploring. They find strange energy emissions from a small planet, and in the middle of a rustic village a huge advanced generator.

 Confronted by the local lawman they find out a couple dozen people in the village are missing. Odo offers to help. Back on DS9, Kira is keeping an eye on Quark in Odo’s absence, but he arranges for Vedek Bareil to come to the station as a distraction.  Indeed a romance does bud there, but Kira still manages to stop Quark’s latest criminal enterprise, beat a Bajoran priest in “springball,” totally rock an early 90s headband, and make out with said priest. Put your hands together for Major Kira.

  Also on the station, Jake Sisko begins to apprentice with O’Brien, but eventually reveals to his father that he doesn’t want to join Starfleet. Finally, back in the alien village, Dax has discovered the generator is actually a holo projecter that is beginning to malfunction. The missing people are glitches in the program. They inform the village of what’s going on and arrange to shut it down in order to fix it. They find there is one man here, a man whose homeworld was captured by the mysterious Dominion, and has recreated it here in the program for the last 30 years. Dax and Sisko restore his home and people and leave, after Odo shows a precocious little girl who has befriended him that changelings are not just a myth.

Interesting to see them go to a three tiered story rather than the usual two, but the balance works, and thematically the stories tie together well as no one is quite what one expects. This of course starts a romantic relationship between Kira and Bareil that will have some major ramifications down the line, and we get Jake first deciding to do SOMETHING besides Starfleet. 

This should be no surprise since his earliest memories would be his mother being violently killed on Starship duty. We get another hint at The Dominion in a really successful slow burn.  We also here the holo people refer to Odo as a “Changeling” which will of course play as an important distinction later.

NEXT VOYAGE: Jadza takes on a mentorship role for a young Trill who may be joined with a symbiont, but they are also faced with a tiny nascent universe that may be trying to supplant our own in “Playing God.”