#but Odo has been stuck like this for

[andyoullhearitagain]

Because I have a disease where I want to add a baby to every television show I think Odo's changeling baby should have stuck around, but to save money they stay a little jar of goo for a long time. Like Odo's talking about how they turned into a dodecahedron yesterday but every time we see them Odo's carrying a jar of goo and is like "Say hello to the Major, sweetheart. They're all tuckered out 🥺." This has been "Deep Space Nine Slapstick Pitches."

[hollis-art]

Your taste in fics seems amazing. For the life of me I can't find any star trek fanfictions. Care to share some of your favorites? I would love to hear it :3

heck yeah! sure!

I always save the ones I really like right after I read them, but I can't seem to find the DaForge one I was talking about.

The descriptions I will put after the recs are how I described them to remind myself what they were about (I don't think they help though, because I can't remember them that well,,,) Either way, I'm sure the actual description of the fics are better than the ones I put !!

Data/Geordi:

Flowers- by astraa (hauntedpunk) General data is trying to understand his emotions, he grows flowers and he talks to spot

no emotion that's worth having- orcamermaid Teen and Up data is trying to understand his emotions and how love works. geordi is helping (REALLY CUTE)

every dream i have is sweeter- orcamermaid General, Community (TV) crossover TROY AND ABED GEORDI AND DATA AU???? WHAT! ITS SO CUTE SO GOOD HKJDSAHGDSKJGHDSKJ THEMMMMM

Expectation- justabrain General geordi and data's relationship seen by outsiders, very cute, wedding at the end

all the everything that ever was- squilf Teen and Up picard and Q are soulmates, riker was told not to tell anyone about it (he failed) data and la forge are soulmates too !!! in the background but its still there

Garak/Bashir:

pouring just a hint- susiecarter Teen and Up garak always drinks from bashir's cup before giving it to him, and bashir assumed it was just a quirk of his, but it is actually a cardassian sign of love and trust :)

The 50/50 Consensus- TheoMiller General julian notices that garak is lonlier and stuff is too bright for him so that all gets changed :)

Designs and Alterations- AuroraNova, ConceptaDecency Teen and Up garak has been giving julian coupons, it took a while for him to realize that no one else has been getting them

Balloon Buddies- almaasi General garak and bashir get turned into animals, very silly

The Cupid Computer- almaasi Teen and Up bashir is feeling lonely, so he took a quiz that takes up personal information to show you who your best match/soulmate is

Tell Me You Love Me (Or Tell Me a Lie)- almaasi Teen and Up garak gets a message that he's due to be sent home, (to die, literally or symolically) so he tells jullian his deepest secrets as tradition

Quark/Odo:

your accent mixing with mine- spacebubble Teen and Up the universal language translator is down, odo realizes that quark has his accent when pronouncing words. they kiss

More Forsaken Than Usual- NervousAsexual General instead of being stuck in the elevator with lwaxana troi, odo is stuck with quark

Breathe- Paratale General odo is upset, quark helps him learn how to cry

play it again- nepetrel Teen and Up ((this one is better without knowing the twist, but this involves time travel and kissing :) ))

Conflicts with Interest- katiemariie Teen and Up quark and odo bicker. they're in an established relationship, im putting this here because i really like the fluidity they gave to odo

put down your sword and crown- spacebubble Teen and Up quark is drunk so odo tries to figure out why

Spock/Kirk:

Ten Things I (Love) About You- ItinerantAvthor General this is based on a merther fic of the same premise. spock accidently finds a list that kirk made about him, but there is a space torn out of the top. "10 things i ___e about spock". spock thinks that the logical conclusion is that the word is 'hate'. he proceeds to try his best to not do any of the things listed :) this is the fic that got me into star trek, actually

The prominence of a simple word- Exploding_Space General kirk just keeps calling spock 'sweetheart'

Science Blues- museaway Teen and Up mccoy and spock body swap on accident. they don't tell kirk.

Textual Beginnings- iknewaman Teen and Up wrong number fic!!! Academy era!! kirk finds spock's number on the bathroom wall and decides to text it, its really cute

Of Coffee Beans and Green Tea Leaves- Se7en_devils Teen and Up spock goes to a cafe that kirk works at, kirk keeps flirting with him and using words of different dialects to do it because he learned that spock is a language professor. very adorable

Letters From Across the Universe- Starlighter_Varda General spock and kirk are pen pals from across the universe. temporary character death (sorta) cried over this, very good. there's a cat named leonard, love him

Something Smart to Do- kianspo Mature (i don't remember what's mature about it. i don't think it was anything bad, if it was, i wouldn't have saved it, or i would've made a note of it) all of the times kirk and spock are 'married' for a mission. very adorable

Miscommunication- sinestrated Teen and Up kirk gets his brain all goofed up, making him call people by whatever nickname he thinks of them by. he tries to avoid spock, knowing full well the word was going to be something sweet (it was)

Pirates, Spies, and Bedtime Stories- lallyloo General spock and kirk get into a transporter accident that turns them 5 years old. mccoy takes care of them

ok i think that's all of the ones I have written down!! (for now) i hope this helps!! :) they're all ship fics because i honestly find star trek kind of boring if you don't watch it for them,,,

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME, holy shit! tuesday we watched ds9's "a time to stand" and "rocks and shoals."

a time to stand:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGH

i feel like ds9 is so fucking good every episode i rate "watch" on ym spreadsheet would easily be "must see" in any other trek show. where do i even fucking start

i love that theyre just casually mentioning bashirs darkest secret in playful banter now. theres something in there that makes me very emotional but also it's extremely funny. also, he really DOES quote percentages like a vulcan. whatever he and garak were doing, i don't know what that was but i loved it. literally his boyish smile

oh speaking of couples. KIRA AND ODO. they've got the station all to themselves...um, e quark. i did get deluded for a hot second, when they were all at the bar together, into believing in kira e odo e quark. i don't think that's going to be a permanent feature in my psyche but it was fascinating to experience just once

ODO. MAKES HANDS. TO TOUCH PEOPLE WITH!!!!!!!!!!!

no one made this gifset so i have to make do with a screencap

HE MAKES HANDS TO TOUCH PEOPLE WITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i may have had to pause the episode to start screaming

also. hi. "im glad you can still smile" "only when im with you" what if i threw myself into the sun

dukat and kira, holy shit. i've never been so scared in my life. i think about it all the time that he essentially called leeta into his office to fuck him. he BLOCKED KIRA'S EXIT. jesus christ we've come so far from his gay little fireworks show and the thron in his ass

odo manipulating weyoun who's obsessed with him <3 king. but he only did it because <3 kira asked him to. he literally said i've walked this horrible horrible line before i can do it again...their relationship is somehow moving forward because they are going back in time

and like GOD she knows he loves her and she hasn't decided how she feels back but somehow it's still comfortable because he doesn't ask for anything...IMPECCABLE fucking vibes. WHO is doing it like them

on the spaceship side, all of that was very fun, especially sisko and his <3 headaches. but even funnier was them getting stuck 17 years away from help. JUST like. star trek voyager

rocks and shoals:

AND IT GETS BETTER!

kira in this episode. mwah. she quite literally can't live with herself and it's SO clever because at first you the viewer are also like aaaa no dont let the bajorans protest aaaaaa theyll get in trouble and then kira has the change on heart and youre like oh shit. oh fuck. whose side am EYE on?

also, the fact that this was also odo's kneejerk reaction, and she said "don't make me fight you too" and he immediately fell in line. that's love.

garak's "oh, NO" as they were falling. please let the man say "oh shit"

o'brien ripping his pants <3 incredibly funny i felt like i was getting loopy right along with them. the wide shot of the flaming ship sinking into the sea as they laughed their asses off.......cinema

poor dax!!! she tries so hard to be brave but man she really did get fucked up

the little vorta freak in this episode...i want him dead. what an evil thing to do to your own guys AND one of sisko's people died too because of it. ik they won't kil him but they should kill him

i wasn't expecting the thing between garak and nog to have like consequences but it was funt hat they brought it back up. good for them and good for nog, even though i still wish it had been bashir on the post

julian being so chirpy and cheerful w the vorta after fixing him up as though he is a normal patient...sir please control yourself

my only complaint is i wish jake had more to do...right now he just seems to be getting underfoot, when staying behind was supposed to be a sign of maturity. hopefully all his reporting isn't for nothing!!!!

TONIGHT: voy's "day of honor" and "nemesis"

[unknownfaceless-ds9]

☄️ Your headcanon/s about a favourite character ?

(your headcanon.s about Tysess of course! 😏)

Alright, let's get it started. Because this ain't only gonna be Tysess XD (still, not all characters, because otherwise this would take too long)

Tysess:

(mentioned some or referenced some in my story, but still gonna keep them here)

He's a soft lover, I'm sorry, but he is. As stubborn and stoic and stern he can be and has quick tempered he definetly will be, he melts around his s/o and will do anything for them. Anything. Either in the andorian way, or any other way, whatever is more comfortable for them.. However duty is duty and duty comes first. He struggles a bit at first but he'll get the hang of it (Though he would definetely declare ushaan if somebody, especially an andorian, disrespects his s/o. And he'll win)

He enjoys cooking. He may not be a chef but cooking gives him the relaxation he needs after an exhausting day. And it's really good, like, Pike-level good.

Tysess is a really good singer. If he hadn't joined Starfleet you maybe would've been able to see him on the andorian Broadway.

He's on the ace spectrum. Maybe demi, maybe grey, but he's on there. Got that from you :)

Hemmer:

Hemmer sometimes helps in the arboretum in the science division. He loves flora and was really excited when coming to other planets and finding new, not dangerous, flora. (There was this one accident where one of his new plants tried to eat Spock, but that's not important right now....)

Uhura forced him to come to Karaoke night one time. He killed it, maybe a bit off, but he killed it. There are rumours, that even Spock smiled.

He's got a little niece that he loves more than everything in this galaxy. And while having three siblings, he is her favourite uncle.

He's got tattoos, that you not only can see, but feel. I also wrote something for that scenario. Thanks again for that one @nichestartrekkie0-0

Odo:

He secretely loves children. Yes, he's grumpy and really awkward, but he really loves those weird little beings, that are definetly not capable of living alone at the moment. He just can't say no to them. He may pretend at first, however in the end, the'll always get him around. There is a group of kids on Ds9 that has spends an hour a week playing hide and seek with him. He never misses it.

He really enjoys Jazz. He doesn't know why, but he does. Odo once thought about learning Saxophone, but decided against it. (Though it was tempting, because it would definetely piss Quark off)

When he's stressed he turns on some sort of Techno music or music with a heavy beat and lays down on the music box to feel the vibrations

Though he presents himself as male/ prefers to be addressed as he/him, he does not care if he's addressed as they/them or she/her. Gender is a weird thing.

When he was solid, he expirienced heavy body disphoria. Not only because of his gender though, but also because he was not used of being stuck in one form

thanks again for asking :)

[coolseabird]

BG3 Tav Backstory Bash by Kelandrin

This is a challenge to help people flesh out their Tav’s backstory by exploring their past. It is organized into four sections with seven prompts. You can treat this as a monthly challenge or a general project. You can write headcanons, fics, or share art based on the prompts! You can interpret the prompts however you want. If you want to share use the tag #bg3backstorybash

I was tagged by @grenanigans <3

I tag @upturninginkpots and @quantum-dragon No pressure at all though!

I actually finally made a Tav with a backstory recently so this is good timing. Forgive me for getting any Githyanki lore wrong. I'm very new to the Forgotten Realms.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is Ga'rak (though who knows what his actual name is)

Yes I just stole his name from Garak. XD I initially took to calling him this half-jokingly since he reminded me of the DS9 character and it sorta just stuck. (Tbh though he is almost more similar to Odo)

Age: 45-50 years old

Gender: Male

Childhood: Born into a typical Githyanki creche, his childhood was far from typical. Early on, he was singled out for his psionic potential, leading to his separation from the other Githyanki children so he never had any friends his age. His training emphasized not just physical combat but also the mental manipulation of others. High-ranking Githyanki, part of a coalition of commanders open to unconventional strategies, decided to use him as a spy to learn about Faerunian society in an effort to learn their weaknesses.

Teenager/Pre-Game: During his teenage years, he embraced the role of an Arcane Trickster and Lore Bard, atypical classes for a Githyanki. He was dispatched to the Sword Coast under the guise of a socialite, With the aid of spells like Disguise Self (to not appear Githyanki), etiquette lessons from a human teacher his Creche had kidnapped, and a generous flow of gold from Githyanki raids, he seamlessly infiltrated the upper echelons of Neverwinter's society. (I imagine his cover persona was a lot like Jay Gatsby) He's never been in love and I don't know if he will ever fall in love in the future to be honest. (At least none of the romance options in this game really make sense to me for him. Maybe Minthara? But eh.)

Here is his half-elf disguise. He used it to trick the Tieflings holding Lae'zel captive. His name when he used this form as a spy was Garret or something like that XD.

His primary objective was espionage, identifying weaknesses for a future invasion and subtly undermining the government. As he immersed himself in the local culture, he encountered lifestyles that were very different from his oppressive upbringing. This exposure "corrupted him" and made him realize over the decades how unhappy he was in this role thrust upon him and how he didn't at all believe in the mission. He is also very cynical about the Githyanki government and doubts that Vlaakith is actually a god worth worshipping but he is too complacent to do anything about it. He is jaded and has resigned himself to this life. After all, revealing his doubts would only get him killed and he had no other paths available to him. That is, until he was tadpoled...

Meeting Shadowheart

Adulthood:

The tadpole's effect caused his Disguise Self spell to be inactive when initially meeting the others, preventing him from concealing his species from this group. As he thought his mission being revealed could endanger him, even to other Githyanki, he concocted a half-truth, telling his companions he was in Faerun as a Githyanki scout, masking his true goals. (Lae'zel doubts his story due to his rustiness and unfamiliarity with Githyanki culture and customs)

Freeing Gale

Having been isolated from other Githyanki for most of his life with his only contacts being his Githyanki handlers, he feels doubly estranged from both his own culture and the broader society of Faerun. (I was very inspired by stories of undercover agents having trouble re-integrating back into their home countries.)

He views others primarily as sources of information. While his main goal is to get rid of the tadpole, he also sees this time as an opportunity to gather more "sources." The tadpole gang becomes his targets, valued only as potential assets (particularly Wyll), yet he ultimately regards them as expendable.

Making Conversation

Even though he can come off as affable and charming, his true personality is almost frighteningly calm and detached, traits that initially put him at odds with Astarion and Karlach, who he views as a loose cannons.

Since he is Gith he is skilled with a blade but he prefers not to get blood on his hands. He is a huge germaphobe. (This makes the tadpole even worse for him. Not to mention camping in the woods every night.)

I think he'll likely get along well with Wyll and the Emperor. He can relate to the Emperor's longing for freedom and level headedness, he also appreciates Wyll's impeccable manners and potential high value as a tool. He and Shadowheart would have a mutual respect despite his being a Githyanki, he and Minthara would be cordial, and he and Gale would enjoy discussing illusion magic together. I also think he has a bit of a soft spot for my friend @upturninginkpots's Tav and will eventually come to see her as something of a little sister, he'll give her advice on questioning her own beliefs.

Here he is with @upturninginkpots's Tav, I'll allow her to introduce her. :)

Lae'zel's aggressive demeanor initially repels him, not least because of his own complicated relationship with Githyanki culture, and due to what he perceives as her "bull in a china shop" personality. She initially thinks he is a puny example of a Githyanki and she finds his cynical attitude to be blasphemous. He sees her as naive and foolish. They may eventually start to realize they have more in common than they think though and he will hopefully become something of a mentor to her in the future.

Githyanki Reunion

Upon discovering more about Vlaakith's plans, I think he will fully commit to defection. I think at this point he would also tell the other companions his true mission. (I know I can't actually do this in the game but it will happen in my head haha) The challenging thing is whether he is willing to put aside his complacency to help free other Githyanki from her grip, potentially betraying the Emperor and risking his own life in the process. Another consideration is whether a certain headstrong Githyanki warrior will start to question her beliefs and defect as well.

Thank you for reading and thanks for the tag @grenanigans ! If anyone sees this post and you end up making your own Tav post please tag me! I'd love to see it. :)

[dgcatanisiri]

Hey, I've got a question about DS9 I'm wondering if you could answer. I'm in season 5, just watched EP 15, By Inferno's Light. If you don't recall, it wraps up a 2-parter wherein we find out Bashir was abducted a month prior and has been in a Jem'hadar prison. He still wears the original uniform - the cast switched to the grey-top uniforms in EP 10. This means that the changeling imposter has been in place for the episodes in between...

Notably, EP 12's plot involves an infant changeling which Odo begins to care for like his own child. The baby is infected and initially seems to be successfully treated by the doctor. After a couple weeks and some impressive progress by the lil goo baby, it suddenly worsens dramatically and dies. As it does, it's gift of transmutation is given to Odo and he resumes his original abilities.

This has me wondering - did changeling!Bashir poison the baby? Should we see it as a genuine failure of medical treatment or understand it to be sabotage? Right before it's health takes a dramatic turn, the baby had shown to make a huge leap in growth and connection to Odo, and had seemed perfectly fine, if not thriving, up until then. I would think changeling!Bashir would know how to gauge the needs of it's own kind, so like, was it withholding vital medical care? What the hell?

Also, a big deal is made about no changeling ever harming another - and it's funny that the punishment Odo got of being stuck as a solid for killing one of his own is reversed at the end of this particular episode. Not sure what to make of it!

Well, the out of universe answer is that the writers didn't decide that Bashir had been replaced by the Changeling until writing that two parter, so when they were writing the episode itself, Bashir was Bashir (Siddig himself has been interviewed and said that he would have played things differently if he'd known ahead of time). Also out of universe, I think the writers just didn't really vibe with making Odo a solid in practice, as Odo's solidity was not really explored in any significant fashion between the taking of his abilities and their restoration, and they just decided to find a way to undo it.

So what I think is that what happened with the infant Changeling was more akin to something like Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or something of that sort, or perhaps a reaction to the tetryon radiation exposure it had suffered, that while it had made some recovery, it just wasn't enough to prevent it from dying, in the way that someone can be in remission from something like cancer and then suddenly have it return aggressively.

It genuinely seems that both writer intention and in universe evidence is that it was just a routine failure of medicine to solve the issue, which has always been known to happen. It could even be that while the Changeling seemed to be thriving, putting it through the effort of that level of shapeshifting when it was still recovering might have caused problems, like popping your stitches when you exert yourself too much too soon after surgery.

I feel like Odo receiving this gift and specifically like this is almost like being granted "atonement" in the eyes of other Changelings - a life for a life, where Odo took the life of one of their kind, his efforts to save the life of another, while in the end not enough to save the life, was enough to redeem him.

[leohttbriar]

i sort of think one of the reasons ds9 does fail in the particular (democracy, maybe?) Thematic is because it stopped caring about the other star-trek theme laid out for us in the intro to the original series: "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." ds9 is more about exploring said alien civilizations than about discovery. which is its weak point. when there were episodes about science and discovery and whatnot, they were great and interesting and pushed questions that sci-fi as a genre tends to push. odo discovering his kind, sisko and jake building the star-sailor, julian curing that disease with a vaccine, lenara building a wormhole, jadzia wanting to examine a planet closer and causing everyone to be stuck in a weird colony of pre-determined ancestors, etc. but the war plot overshadowed stuff like this and suddenly it was like watching the conclusion to lord of the rings, where evil defeats itself and the gods knew it all along and now our hero must stay in their realm (with none of the richness of the actual lord of the rings).

but the "discovery" element is important bc it carries themes about choice and questions about self and the essentiality of bodies and so on. to be constantly confronted with something alien, something new, is a process of de-familiarization with one's own world and culture. people don't notice their own accents until they're somewhere else, hearing another accent. but this element is so often linked in fan spaces with things like "colonization" or "imperialism" where the institution of starfleet is an instrument of colonizing and the infrastructure of the federation is that of an empire, much like america is today. my issue with that argument is not so much that i think it's necessarily wrong, or that it's missing "the point" (i mean, how much can a multi-authored, half-century-long story have a single "point")--it's that words like "colonizing" have moral significance and suddenly the things that we see in the shows that the star-explorers do most of the time, i.e., exploring, are colored with this implication: that scientific discovery is inherently a colonial project.

that science has contributed to colonialism, that colonialism has funded scientific exploration, that full knowledge-systems that have aided in establishing some of the most well-established scientific theories have also been rhetorically used to promote violent hate and slavery and dehumanization--there is no question. "exploration" has a history of chugging right along-side actual genocide and violent exploitation. but "exploration" is not colonialism. it's also been a tool for activists, champions of human rights, champions of non-human lives and rights, and, while not a moral tool, an avenue for expanding and encouraging human compassion.

the thing is, the challenge of scientific discovery is not only a challenge of establishing empircal fact but of knowing the boudaries of certainty. and this confrontation with human limits of knowledge, limits of consciousness, limits of Thought and Feeling at their most fundamental, is the sort of stuff a speculative world thrives in. the star-sail-ship that sisko builds is such a prime example because it's quite literally an archaeological and engineering discovery that de-colonizes. "far beyond the stars" is about how the imaginative reality is powerful, as it makes an argument that there will be a future and that future will belong to everyone, even as the world now does not; the imaginative yet exists and can be real if thought is allowed to expand to newness and newness is allowed power to shape what some might call "nature." interrogating "what is" forces out "narratives" and forces in complexity and sincerity and self-definition.

and, like. choice. what it takes to choose.

(and yeah, the colonizing aesthetic is there and i wouldn't blame anyone for being too uncomfortable with what's being presented (in TOS especially). some things have to be earned and words like "final frontier" and the design of some of those "alien" cultures can be hard to see past. at the same time the show is about enfolding new planets into a federation of planets (which, like, from a purely civics/government argument, is not colonialism), it is also enfolding new knowledge into an existing academy. which i think is good. (even if there could stand to be more stories about advanced civilizations that don't actually want to share their knowledge, which is ultimately respected.))

ds9 as whole annoyed me, though, with the thru-line theme being so weak and nonsensical, as it is concluded in the final episode. the institutions and the infrastructure are already there, within the world of the story, to force characters into decisions about power and governing and what it takes for a people to recover from fascist occupation while repelling a second fascist invasion. yet not a single character makes an actual argument against it. or voices a support for said institutions in a way that makes it clear why anyone would repel the invasion to begin with. the changelings are simply morally wrong and must be stopped (and they will definitely be bc the wormhole aliens See All ugh)

julian has one episode in which he learns to let go of his despair because, despite how intensely smart he is, he cannot know the future. and that is the best thing ds9 said about anti-fascism. not everything can be wholly known and wholly controlled. which is why choice has a value. why odo's pithy statement about people choosing "wrong" had to be answered (sucks that it was not). and it's julian, one of the characters most allowed to do scientific work throughout the series, who voices this and voices, in another episode, that some things cannot be simple cures, but only ongoing vaccines, projects that one has to re-invest in time and time again. in spite of uncertainty, in spite of how easy it would be to schedule a death before the pain sets in.

and i just think an established multicultural, liberal, exploration-based institution deserves to be championed in this speculative future. and that sci-fi as a whole could stand to be more focused on infrastructure. because it represents a collective owning of what is to come, so long as the state is owned by the people. i know trekkies on this website as a whole are kind of anti-establishment or anti-state, but my (probably unpopular opinion) is that state-ordained exploration can be a good thing. and someone in ds9 should have said something about why federal democracy is better than the changelings taking over.

[jimintomystery]

DS9: "The Die is Cast"

Constable Odo and Garak have found Enabran Tain leading a rogue fleet of Cardassian and Romulan warships. Garak agrees to join Tain's campaign to eradicate the Founders of the Dominion, and to interrogate Odo for any knowledge he has about his people. To rescue Odo, Commander Sisko must take the Defiant into a battle between three of the Federation's most dangerous enemies!

I'm not sure if this episode lives up to the hype from the ending of "Improbable Cause," but I was so hyped by that cliffhanger that it really didn't matter. Tain's plan sounded so audacious, and so foolproof, that I had to know what would happen next.

Up until this two-parter, the point of view on Star Trek had mainly stuck with Starfleet, or at least allies like the Bajorans. In that context, it hadn't occurred to me that anyone might "solve" the Dominion problem with a genocidal sneak attack, because Starfleet would never let that happen. (Put a pin in that.) But since this story dares to exclude all the Starfleet characters from the main plot, there's nobody to stop Tain except Odo, who is immediately taken prisoner. Once Tain's ships are under way, both Starfleet and the audience are left to realize the Founders are pretty screwed, and nobody has any reason to intervene on their behalf.

By 1995, Star Trek had rarely raised the stakes beyond "one bad guy ship threatening to maybe open fire on one good guy ship," so Tain's fleet of twenty ships sounded pretty hardcore. It was absolutely mind-boggling, then, when the Dominion retaliated with one hundred fifty Jem'Hadar fighters. Granted, you don't really get to see that many vessels zipping around blasting at each other. Even so, the idea of 150 small fighters pummeling twenty capital ships absolutely captivated me. Lucky for me, the franchise would start to depict increasingly ambitious space battles going forward.

I guess the big downside to "The Die is Cast" is that the Battle of the Omarian Nebula overshadows most of the character moments. "Odo questions Garak" gave us a lot of great interplay in "Improbable Cause," but "Garak tortures Odo" isn't as productive. It's interesting to see Garak reconciling with Tain, but they still don't really trust one another, so there isn't much for them to talk about. Sisko's plot is little more than macho posturing about who gave who a direct order, and sometimes it's cool to go against orders, and sometimes it's a dick move, and other times it's no harm no foul, and it adds up to nothing.

So yeah, it's not an ideal episode for characterization. Even so, it's worth it to finally get the Founders' perspective on the battle, when one of them writes off the Cardassians and Romulans, and declares the only remaining threats to the Dominion are the Federation and the Klingon Empire. If you'd been paying attention at home--I was!--this felt very rewarding. And I couldn't wait to see how the balance of power continued to shift...

[trillscienceofficer]

this is quite random i'll admit, but your latest post got me thinking: if there would have been a proper crossover between ds9 and voy (not just a cameo like in the pilot), what would you have wanted it to be plotwise?

oh that's a very very good question! Honestly I'm not even sure if I'd want a proper, non-permanent (like, no one from DS9 gets stuck on Voyager) crossover episode, because imho it's hard to make them work well. But I can still see several options here:

it's a pre-Caretaker situation: we see the (OG) Voyager crew get the help of several officers and the Defiant in order to sneak up on the Maquis (Chakotay, B'Elanna and Tuvok), which we also follow as they try to outmaneuver Starfleet. I would love to see where Sisko and (a just promoted) Janeway agree and disagree on how to be in command, and I would love to also learn what kind of history Chakotay and B'Elanna (and Seska!) had with DS9 (did they know about Eddington? were they already receiving help from Kasidy Yates?). In any case at some point the Defiant leaves the Badlands and the events of Caretaker take place anyway

a random wormhole/space irregularity/whatever brings Voyager to the Gamma Quadrant and they immediately almost end up destroyed by the Dominion (which they only vaguely know about), has to hide in a nebula/land on a planet but ta-dahh! it's the Defiant who responds to the distress signal! Except they also almost get destroyed, and the two crews have to help one another to get back on their feet. The specifics depend on when this happens of course—if it's before "Message in a Bottle" the crew would have to learn about the war from the DS9 people and I can't imagine that going over well, especially with the former Maquis. In any case I can see a lot of tension between crews (in a "we were trying to get home and now you are in a war that killed our friends!" vs "you guys disappeared without a trace so you don't have a right to tell us that we made mistakes"). The kicker is that this would be a good opportunity for Voyager to finally get to the AQ but they realize there's no way they could sneak Voyager past Dominion forces towards the Bajoran wormhole, and they can't duplicate the cloak for such a big ship, so in the end the Defiant can only help Voyager go back to DQ (honestly heartwrenching just thinking about this lol)

This is not exactly a crossover, but: DS9 is a hub of research for wormholes for obvious reasons so what if we shelve the whole thing with Barclay and have Voyager contact the station instead? there could just be fun occasional interactions between the officers from the two shows I think.

Now what interactions would I like to see the most? Sisko and Janeway as I've said, Chakotay and B'Elanna reacting to pretty much all the DS9 Starfleet officers on one hand and to Kira and Odo on the other. I really, really would like to see Benjamin's reaction to Seven of Nine too, although I'm afraid it would be rather painful for him still. But I think he'd also be interested in hearing about a former drone that managed to escape. On a lighter note I would love to see Jadzia grinning her way into challenging Tom at a game of dares (and winning every one). Tuvok and Worf would HATE the madness of having two crews of strong personalities interact so much, and I kinda want to see them both and Julian work together on something. Perhaps Harry and Miles (and B'Elanna too, unless she is refusing to speak with the people from DS9) can have a nice chat about how hard it is to keep a ship/station running in such difficult conditions. If you want to hear people yelling I think you should probably pair Kira and Seven because they would NOT get along at all imho. There is just. SO much stuff that can be said and I haven't even touched upon!! A crossover like this is such an ambitious concept and I'm sure I forgot half the stuff that I wanted to say

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S1 E12-15

I have been sorta nursing my health for the last couple of days as I've had some pretty bad pain days and didn't really feel up to giving a full recap as I watched something. I'm still feeling crappy so this may continue for the foreseeable future. Yay chronic illnesses... Anywhoo on to the recaps.

E12 - Vortex

This is another Odo episode. Was kinda expecting to just blank out and let this one pass without much thought, but I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't particularly like it, but it had some good moments. Up to this point there didn't seem to be much to him besides "security dude" but getting to see that even he has temptations was a nice touch for character development. There are potential clues on who/what he might be in it but ultimately I knew it was too early for him to get to meet his people so I was curious to see where it actually led. When he ultimately let the dude and his daughter escape by letting the Vulcans take them to safety was really where the episode changes for me. That's literally at the end so it doesn't do much but change my star rating on it but it let me see that Odo has a heart and I look forward to seeing more of softy Odo. If he truly is a grump with a heart of goo (this is a pun laugh with me) then I might actually come to like Odo.

6/10

E13 Battle Lines

Typical "two sides have been fighting for centuries and refuse to stop story." While I agree with Sisko's decision not to let Bashir change the "coding" of whatever was keeping those folks alive after dying over and over again, I was on the side of ending it until Shel-la (I think) said he'd use it to win the war finally.

I felt bad for Kira when the Kai died and when it became clear that she couldn't leave again because of it. Kira's reaction was pretty much how I would have (at least in the sense of "Why aren't you DOING something") and she's growing to be the fiesty Kira I know and love.

5/10

E14 The Storyteller

This one had me laughing probably more than I should have been but I had a fun ride on this one. I in no way thought this one was a "good" episode but seeing Miles in any uncomfortable situation like this is generally worth my time. I know that Bashir and Miles become friends at some point but seeing them have this awkward interaction at the beginning, the pulling of teeth to make Miles socialize with anyone let alone a chatty Bashir, and then the bait and switch on the surface. Chefs kiss. Bashir also had too much fun laughing at him. lol

I don't have much to say about the plot itself, it was okay. I do enjoy a "we created our own monster" story, though generally its also tied to a "this person is a monster" character so it was interesting to see it manifest as a storm like thing.

6/10 for the giggles

E15 Progress

I really like this episode but I don't like how it ended. To me, it doesn't fit with the Kira that we've met so far. This is the first time that I could see the Ro Laren skeleton to Kira's character design cause I could see Ro doing the same things.

Having her, of all the crew, touch down on the surface and run into (at least) 3 folks trying to live their lives away from the pain of what the Cardassians did to them, was the perfect set up for this. Everyone else would have fought them harder or would have taken them without their permission within minutes. And then when the old man gets hurt and she stays to nurse him back to health for a while, it really felt like she was settling back into the Bajorian refugee type where they all help each other no matter what their title was. It was really touching and beautifully set up.

What I don't agree with is what happened after Sisko reminds her that while it's okay to be conflicted but it's not okay to get stuck, she decides that she is going to drag this man away from his home unwillingly. Yes, if she left him there he *probably* wouldn't have survived and yes she had a job to do, I'm aware of all of this and even accept that these are the reasons she acted the way she did. But I feel like war exhausted Kira would throw all she had at him and still let him decide his own fate, given how much the Cardassians had ruled over them. I feel like he should have been allowed to choose where he wanted to die and it felt out of character that Kira didn't agree.

With that said! The idea that she helped him finish building a few things or fixing things up and then she turned around to burn it all down was a pretty dramatic touch that I didn't see her doing. It was a very powerful ending.

7/10

[alexsbrain]

Deep Space Nine at Thirty

Thirty years ago, on January 3rd, 1993, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine debuted on the airwaves. The show would not only change the Star Trek franchise but along with a few other 90s shows, laid the foundation for serialized storytelling in prime-time television and later streamers. DS9, as the fans call it, has a prescience and was not only relevant when it aired, but much can still be gleaned from the show today.

The idea of having a stationary setting for a Star Trek installation had been floating about since the 80s with producer Harve Bennet’s unsuccessful Starfleet Academy pitch. Since the franchise had done two starship instalments, it seemed the next frontier, but not the final, would see a crew more or less stay put and have the galaxy come to them. A New York city in space.

Originally Brandon Tartikoff, the head of Paramount, pitched the idea. If Star Trek had been a “wagon train to the stars,” what the franchise needed was a Rifleman-type show. A sheriff raising a son in a wild west frontier colony on some distant planet at the far ends of Federation territory. Since this would entail a copious amount of location shooting, the idea was shifted to a space station, but the western motif stuck. Sisko became the mayor, Jake his son. Odo was the Sheriff, O’Brien the Everyman, Dax the Wise ol’ timer, Quark the local barkeep, Kira the Indigenous person, and Bashir was the town doctor.

What fascinated the show's creators, Rick Berman and especially Michael Piller, was this idea of staying put. Instead of solving problems and then leaving to explore some new planet each week, the characters of DS9 would have to face the ramifications of their actions week after week. What Piller described as the difference between “a one-night stand and a relationship.” DS9's ethos would also allow the writers to explore relationships and community in greater depth. The show has been described as a family-oriented Star Trek series. This theme was explored in the previous two outings and subsequent instalments, but not in the same breadth as DS9. As Armin Shimerman (Quark) has said, every Ferengi episode is a “family episode.”

Each character on the show, including the recurring characters, would have to face their family, or in Dax’s case, her previous hosts. Even Gul Dukat, the baddest Cardassian in the whole damn town, would have to half-assedly raise his half-Bajoran daughter.

           Unlike the previous two Star Trek shows, the cast of DS9 would boldly go into the exploration of themselves. Sisko says it best in the pilot, “we explore our lives day by day.” Each character on DS9 experiences profound growth and change that they do not resemble the person we first meet. While character growth occurs in the other series, DS9’s episodic serialization and stationary setting forced an introspective aspect on the characters. It was the character show. DS9 was also full of several firsts for the franchise. Like Avery Brooks as the first Black lead, Kira as the first female first officer that wasn’t written off after the pilot, Dax as the first full-time transgender character, and several other notables.

DS9 isn’t just the best Star Trek series, it was some of the best American television of the 1990s. Along with other series like Twin Peaks, Melrose Place, and later seasons of The Larry Sanders Show, DS9 brought continuity to prime-time television through the dreaded ‘S’ word, serialization. Not a new concept, serialization was foreign to most prime-time outings. These shows not only offered nascent serialization but a continuity lacking in other prime-time shows. Despite the continuity of Voyager, writer Ronald D. Moore left the show after a few episodes in season six when he realized the producers weren’t interested in DS9-style continuity. 

The characters on 80s American television essentially remained the same. This is especially true of sitcoms where the delicate balance of comedic tensions between personalities must maintain the comedic pecking order. A character learns a lesson, but essentially things are back to normal in the next episode. Norm on Cheers might be victorious one day, but eventually, he has to go back to his barstool to play the loser but is always one level above Cliff Clavin. That’s how the show maintained the comedy. Rose on The Golden Girls will always be Rose.

Characters on The Next Generation grew, but any event was solved by the next episode, and things were back to normal as the Enterprise D was off on a new adventure. On DS9 the characters grew, morphed, changed, and each episode mattered to the episodes after it. They couldn’t warp to some new planet. The crew had to stay on that station dealing with the ramifications of what they did last week or the week before. Unfortunately, the pseudo serialization, or episodic serialization, killed the ratings. If you missed episode three of the season, you might be lost in episode twenty, as happened to this writer.

This was before DVD box sets. The producers of DS9 were taking a chance with the format, a format that is ubiquitous in the streaming world. In the 90s, it was tantamount to ratings suicide as audiences were accustomed to missing an episode here and there. After all, there was life to live and grass to touch.

I was in grade five when the show debuted. I caught every episode of the first season. In grade six, I started to play baseball and had after-school art programs and rehearsals for plays. These things usually happened on the night DS9 aired. I didn’t always have the spare cash to tape the episodes. However, this was similar to my TNG experience. If I missed an episode, I would catch it on hiatus week or in syndication, no biggie. With DS9, missing an episode was flirting with disaster. I always seemed to miss the important episodes too. I eventually stopped watching the show regularly in the third season. I’d catch the odd episode in later seasons and ask, why are they at war with the Klingons? Why is Weyoun alive? My DS9 love affair, and my Star Trek fandom, were put on hold as I entered mid-adolescence.

By the early aughts, several factors going on in my life drew me back into the warmth of Star Trek fandom. I downloaded the entire run of DS9 and started from the beginning. I still have those files. I sentimentally refuse to delete them despite their lacklustre quality. 

Although it took about six years after the show ended, I did catch up. DS9 now holds a special place in my heart. Unlike the perfectly evolved humans on the Enterprise D, the DS9 characters start the show with major character flaws. As the show progresses, they learn and grow. Sisko’s journey is perhaps the most profound, starting out with PTSD caused by the death of his wife, isolated, alone, a single parent, questioning his career and life. Sisko then ends up a demigod destined not only to save the alpha quadrant but the wormhole aliens, aka the Prophets. When asked which is my favourite Star Trek series, I sometimes reply with, “the Sisko is of Bajor.” 

Sisko’s salvation partially comes from the community he helps build on the station. As the saying goes, “it takes a community,” and that’s DS9’s legacy. At its core, it’s about friendship, community, and family, not just blood kin but the family we create along with way. When my mental health is at its worst, I turn to Star Trek to buoy my spirits. When I am in deep crisis, survival mode, I turn not to the original series, Enterprise, nor Next Gen but to DS9. It’s the bicycle wheel-shaped space station that gives the most comfort, and the most hope to keep going. To fight and try to overcome.

DS9 also attempted to walk back some of the more overt colonialist and imperialist tropes found in previous Star Trek outings. Not being an American, the original series displays a type of American bravado, melting pot assimilation, and is rife with American imperialism and exceptionalism. In the future, Earth unified into an American type of state, not a Westminster style of government. The United Federation of Planets is described by outsiders as a “homo sapiens-only club,” and its head is a President. Kirk’s main enemies, the Klingons and Romulans, were stand-ins for America’s communist foes, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China. One of the main villain species on Next Gen was the Borg, a homogenizing force which threatened occidental ideals of liberalism and the rights of the individual.

Although DS9’s backdrop was the Cardassian occupation of Bajor and is analogous to many atrocious regimes, such as South African apartheid, French Algeria, the Holocaust, and the genocide of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the main villain on DS9 was the Dominion. Created as an anti-federation, a dictatorial colonizing/imperialist regime, it allowed the show to explore the darker side of the Federation by meeting its antithesis.

Star Trek displays an unshakeable Federation exceptionalism that TNG was the first to dissect. Yet internal threats to the Federation on that show were often rouge Starfleet admirals who would be caught by the Enterprise D crew, and all would be well next episode. DS9 dismantles that trope. The Federation, as great as it is, is flawed. When the going gets rough, the smug moral superiority of the Federation gets tossed out the window to achieve its goal.

Mass hysteria and fear, brought on by the Dominion and Changeling infiltrators, are akin to the Red Scare and McCarthyism, and with great prescience, the War on Terror. Not only does DS9 tackle, in a historical context, nationalism, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and exceptionalism, but contains a universality that projects the show’s themes into the future. Most recently, the Iranian government and the Ferengi has a lot in common. Protests over the reach of the state on women’s dress and bodies mirror the Ferengi’s attitudes towards women. Ferengi women are not allowed to fully participate in society and must remain unclothed. Eventually, this injustice is corrected in the show when Quark’s mother Ishka leads a suffragette/feminist movement.

DS9 also tackled an often-taboo topic in the Star Trek universe. Namely faith and religion. Not only would Bajoran faith dominate throughout the show, but the show's writers never gave concrete answers to several posed questions about faith. One reading of the show could be of a human, Sisko, reconnecting with or finding their faith. 

Whether they are wormhole aliens or the Prophets to you, January 3rd is a sacred day, Ha’mara. Ha’mara is the anniversary of when the prophets delivered the Emissary, the Sisko, to the Bajoran people and Star Trek fandom, and this is the thirtieth anniversary. Although I won’t be fasting, I am trying to show my festive gratitude to DS9 through this post.

There is no shortage of modern-day analogies which DS9 did not explore. One of its main failings, as showrunner Ira Steven Behr has stated, is the lack of Queer representation. Dax is transgendered, having been “both a man and a woman.” Yet this wasn't explored fully or brought into the light save for one episode, Rejoined, in season four, and an awkward kiss in season seven. Actor Andrew Robinson has stated on many occasions that he played his character Garak as bisexual and was attracted to Doctor Bashir. However, the Queer community would have to wait until the Berman era of Star Trek ended to see themselves not cloaked behind metaphor.

DS9 is neatly packaged in 90s aesthetics. The colour palette, production design, casting, acting, and story structure, but that is also part of its charm. It cannot be divorced visually from its time, yet its stories and themes transcend the decade. DS9 showcases humanity at its best and its worst. Perhaps it is that humility, the acceptance of our failures and our collective desire to do better which makes the show so endearing.

During DS9's first run, not only were fans not amused by the stationary aspect of the show, but they were also equally appalled by its darkness and its probing of the failings of the Federation. As several fans have pointed out, DS9 is the lefthanded red-headed stepchild of the franchise and fans like me, although in love with the show, got lost by its episodic serialization. It took the last thirty years after it first aired to achieve a super status in Star Trek fandom. Now regarded in the community as the best series out of the lot, paradoxically it is still not necessarily a fan favourite. DS9’s frank and sobering look at humanity is its power, and no other series, save for perhaps Discovery and Picard, dare to look so closely at our collective failings.

Star Trek is by definition idealistic and utopian. Earth has evolved into a paradise and made peace with many alien races, cofounding the Federation. A galactic idealist state. DS9 challenged that utopianism and in self-referential glory, attempted to dismantle Star Trek exceptionalism itself. In that process, the show stands alone, with perhaps Discovery carrying on the torch. Thirty years after its premiere, it still has a lasting impact on viewers. As Sisko tells Kira in season two, “it’s easy to be a saint in paradise…but…out [here those] problems haven’t been solved yet.” As we claw our way through the twenty-first century, DS9’s message, its warning, stands as a rallying cry to keep on fighting, to solve that which has not been solved and to continue to explore our lives "day by day."

[vacantgodling]

2022 Year in Review Tag!

thanks so much @magic-is-something-we-create i feel like this year has been a huge jumble ngl but let’s be positive about it lol :’)

also this is just a general list not top 5 cuz i didn’t do much this year

5 movies i watched

in terms of new movies:

american psycho — i actually enjoyed this movie a lot but it’s genuinely bc this movie is much funnier than i thought it would be. all deeper meanings and commentary aside patrick bateman is a fucking specimen

kwaidan — obsessed with this movie ngl. the first three segments are top tier (kurokami, yukionna & HOICHI THE EARLESS ESPECIALLY IF YOU WATCH NO OTHER PART PLEASE WATCH THIS ONE I CANNOT PRAISE IT ENOUGH). however the last one was super lackluster in comparison to the other three. tbh i feel like if the last one was the first one it would be a really good progression from okay to the best bc you really can’t follow hoichi the earless with anything imo.

tales from crypt (1972) — watched a lot of old horror this year (bc my partner is a horror movie buff and has been getting me into them for awhile now lolol) but this movie was a lot of fun! i want more ridiculous anthologies and movies tbh. make movies fun again tm.

jeepers creepers — never seen it before and MY GOD was screaming the whole time i was watching bc no?? we do not need to investigate you KNOW it’s a creature. all of this might’ve been avoided if y’all just minded your damn business 😔

then off the top of my head i rewatched my comfort movie sherlock holmes bc fuck iron man, rdj’s sherlock is his best role to me. i definitely wanna watch more movies next year.

5 shows i watched

ah i mostly just watched anime this year

chainsaw man — stressed. everyone is sketchy and i’m stressed

rewatch of demon slayer with my friend bc demon slayer is the only thing that matters :) finally have hulu so i can fucking watch season 2 i just haven’t gotten around to it yet 😭

way of the househusband — finally got around to watching the anime this year and just as the manga, it’s perfect

jujutsu kaisen — i love it but at what cost. also i’m a simp for nanami oof

death parade / nana — i’ve only watched the first episodes of each but nana stresses me out (lovingly) and i think death parade is fascinating i just need to make more time to watch shit lol

5 songs of 2022 (*separate from spotify wrapped*)

odo — ado -> got introduced to this song recently and just absolutely obsessed with it. it’s the song that may be sparking a change in one of my wips that i mentioned lol

devil — max changmin -> came out in january and this song owns the whole fucking year idc idc idc

go back — se so neon -> UGH THIS BAND their songs slap so hard but go back is genuinely just so good

濁 (daku) — the gazette -> this whole album. but i want this song directly injected into my veins.

better — boa -> CRACK. THERES CRACK IN THIS SONG. but boa >>>>>>

5 albums or artists of 2022

i don’t have 5 but these three specifically:

devil (the 2nd mini album) — max changmin -> this album owns my ass. cannot believe he started the year like this. how fucking dare lol.

the gazette, always my beloveds

lowlife princess: noir — bibi -> she snapped with this one. every song and mv snapped. bibi vengence & animal farm especially

5 books i read

definitely didn’t read 5 books lol didn’t have time or space mentally. however i will say i started to read bram stoker’s dracula this year, got stuck on the part about paprika, thought it was hilarious and never finished chapter 1. it’s super good from the bit i read so far, i’m just easily amused and don’t have patience 😔

5 characters from media

nanami (jjk) — feral about a man a single man

like everyone in demon slayer but tanjiro komado my fucking BELOVED 😭

hanzo (ovw) — 6 years strong obsessing over this man pff

link — i am once again pointing at my botw self insert au side blog lmaoooo

gojo / rengoku share a spot only bc i love them but ow pain :)

sorry i don’t listen to podcasts lol

and finally

5 positive things that happened in 2022 no matter how small:

got conveyor belt sushi for the first time! i wish it was closer by but maybe it’s better i’d be there every day

created a new writeblr so i could start getting more confident talking about my stories. i think it’s marginally worked! i’m working on myself still but i feel like i’ve been more open and indulgent this year

5 years with my partner!

had a pretty good birthday for the first time in years

despite the struggles working from home has done a lot for my mental health and i want to try and secure another wfh job in the future.

this is an open tag! i hope everyone had a decent year to some extent 💛

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. i'm WAY behind. friday we watched voy's "tattoo," saturday i finally womaned up and agreed to watch ds9's "the visitor" and then we also bravely soldiered on to "hippocratic oath," and last night we did ds9's "indiscretion" and "rejoined."

tattoo (voy):

it's a real shame about (waves vaguely at racefaking "expert" on voy's writing staff) because, due to my own lack of education, i never know which stuff is based in fact and which is just wholesale bullshit. i remember one time i googled something about chakotay's culture because it seemed so obviously fake, and it turned out to be Kind Of True But Not Like That. it sucks because not ONLY was it a huge missed opportunity for Representation And Education (tm) but chakotay is a really interesting guy and i'd like to know more about him and see him get to do more stuff without him getting buried in the like. mysticism and racism of it all. it's no good for him and it's no good to sit through either

bc like. at this episode's core. if you could somehow remove the racist panflute and the whole thing where we portray people from THE SPACE TRAVELING FUTUREEE as primitive savages, you could have had a good story. chakotay struggles with not feeling at home where he lives/in his own culture, goes to space about it, then has an emotional crisis when his dad dies while the two of them are on bad terms. i know that's a good story and i know star trek can make that a good story because do you know who else has that story? SPOCK.

LIKE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY. WHAT WERE YOU DOING!

anyway, chakotay naked. i know he was naked for the wrong reasons but that man had his whole ass out. bold moves heretofore only taken by sir patrick stewart himself. GOOD FOR HIM!

oh yeah the b plot of this episode sucked. we have to give the doctor a cold because of his lack of compassion? since When has he ever complained about sick or whiny people? been gruff with them, sure, tough-love kind of guy definitely, but no one would program a doctor who hated serving patients?? i did like that kes gave him an extra hour to be evil though. i love her so much

the visitor (ds9):

i don't want to talk about it.

or, no, i actually already talked about it, and i don't have anything to add, except that 1. christopher nolan can still suck it 2. every episode of ds9's 4th season so far has made me feel like i need to give it a "must see" on the spreadsheet. i almost can't believe i'm watching star trek. i have to start grading the damn things on a curve

hippocratic oath:

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN. stuck with the jem'hadar and julian is like "i can fix them" and o'brien is like "i have been racist my whole life and i'm not about to stop now and also you cannot fix them so i am going to condemn them to a horrible death in order to save your life" because he did at the beginning of the episode say out loud with his mouth that he wished his wife was more like julian bashir and then promptly refused to examine that thought even a little bit

like this had EVERYTHING. gay people. ethical dilemmas. twink with a spine of steel. worf forgetting he's no longer in tng. my best friend odo disguising as an inanimate object. and i'm supposed to just give it a WATCH?

like, i was right there with julian. fix them fix them fix them it's so easy they CAN be weaned off of it this could change everything i was so livid with o'brien for condemning those guys to a painful and undignified ending and for repeatedly ruining julian's attempts to help with all his attempts to escape and then he was like. yeah. i did all that to save YOUR LIFE because i saw that YOU were in danger.

and it obviously doesn't excuse anything and you get the feeling julian COULD have helped them with enough time and the right tools and and and...but he didn't have all that, and obrien KNEW he didn't have all that, and he wasn't willing to risk his friend's life on a gamble when it came to helping enemy soldiers

like, it's his fucking cardassian ptsd. note how he didn't speak when they were captured but bashir did because the gun was on his friend. note how he had to explain why the commander couldn't escape with them. IT MKAES SO MUCH SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER. who hasn't done horrible things for the people they love? if his wife doesn't get back soon he's going to be asking for julian's hand in marriage by season 5

indiscretion (ds9):

KIRA PULLING THE THORN OUT OF DUKAT'S ASS. sorry i'm good i'm normal

something about dukat...at first he was very boring and flat, and then he was funny but still pretty 2-dimensional, and then he was funny AND gay with sisko but still 2-dimensional, and now he's got all kinds of depth. i completely wrote him off as generic cardassian villain at first but i am genuinely thrilled to see him every time he shows up

like, the bajoran lover and the daughter is such an amazing plot twist, but also, sorry to say this, he and kira have q and picard energy. as in, q wants picard to fuck him so so so bad, and picard has zero interest in doing this, and somehow that interest gets even lower the more q wants it, and the lower his interest gets, the more rabid q is for him, and it's probably the only thing i really enjoyed about either character, a few of sir patrick stewart's better speeches aside. dukat is exactly like that with kira. he is GAGGING for her strap and she finds him vile and rephrensible and the closest they got to fucking was when she pulled the spine out of his ass cheek and laughed at him and he probably is going to put that in the spank bank for the rest of his life. and she will still never fuck him

really fun when she told him to shut up and he shut up <3

i just love episodes that deal with the fallout of the war...it's always such incredible character work. i was worried that with the dominion threat these kinds of episodes would go away and i'm glad that's not the case

also, hi, sisko fumbling things with his gf for the b-plot. dax and julian giving him romantic advice and then mocking him when he leaves. jake being the only one who can talk sense into him. incredible. 10/10

ALSO, not only did capt yates make him work at that apology she did NOT kiss his ass goodbye. and he deserved it.

even quark was funny in this episode, despite the misogyny. he was nice to jake in "the visitor" so i think i've forgiven him because i've made at least two quodo jokes since then. my first love will always be kiraodo (kodo?) though

rejoined (ds9):

LESBIANS IN STAR TREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as previously stated about 600 times on this blog i DID NOT KNOW there would be a gay kiss happening. i thought btvs held the honors for the first gay kiss and that this was going to be like an allegory or a metaphor like in tng. and i did like the tng ep for what it was! but holy shit this blows that out of the water.

i think it's so important that this would have been absolutely NO different whatsoever if either half of the couple had been a man. for the time period especially it's very much like. Queers Are Just Like Us which i think is an important step 1 to reel in potential bigots who are still on the fence. i cannot believe my mother is going to watch this episode someday

also, hi, the allies in this episode...? julian sitting through that WHOLE dinner without the first word of complaint. sisko telling dax it's a bad idea but he'll back her tf up. kira bewildered that any of it is any problem at all. sisko's moment was especially nice bc at first you think he's being a dick which is out of character for him and then you realize 1. he's scared for her 2. he loves her 3. he would probably fight the homophobic (recursionphobic...?) trills with his bare hands if he had a good excuse

it's also nice that zero people in this episode were weird about the idea of two women together. it was SO NORMAL. god i can't believe andor let those two women touch hands for a single shot and called it progressive between that and spn my standards are through the FLOOR!!

TONIGHT: ds9's "starship down" and "little green men," and then we're finally back to voyager.

[noitsbecky127]

rebecca watches ds9: babel

oh this place is a DUMP dump. how did those people even get stuck in there lmao

where exactly are they stuck. how big is it. how long has it been

ah it is an airlock and over an hour

leave miles alone he’s doing his best!

hate that noise!

well at least the noise is gone. at what cost though

DOES ANYTHING ON THIS FUCKING STATION WORK

that device doesn’t seem like it should be there

quark what are you planning

miles are you ok

so whoever jadzia was before the worm, is that just gone?

ooh pudding!!!

miles is NOT okay

i don’t think sleep deprivation does this

you should probably call sickbay

alright good he’s at sickbay

damn so typing doesn’t get around it either

ah fuck it got jadzia too

and nameless people! no one is safe

“essential station operations” i’m having 2020 flashbacks

oh jeez this cargo has a time limit and it is running out

anything can be odo. no one is safe

we’ve barely even met rom, but i trust that he is an idiot

god dammit quark you’ve doomed us all

jesus christ there’s so many people

quark stop it

ah so it was meant to hit the cardassians. unfortunately it went dormant too long

hm. fevers are very bad

twelve hours is not a long time!

the guy who made the virus is dead. you’re fucked

oh there might be a different guy to find

quark stop playing dabo alone

well shit, we lost the doctor, now what

bajorans are probably immune to the virus

wait nope that patient has nose wrinkles i think. never mind!

i want sisko to be my dad

good luck cutting communication now, genius!

uh oh we’re about to lose sisko

and there goes sisko

yeah being infected should help motivate this guy to find an antidote

quark is such a menace lmao

we’ve lost kira too!

this is the longest fucking twelve hours ever. so much has happened in that time and it’s not even over yet

hopefully that cargo wasn’t anything essential to anyone

alright everyone’s ok, very good

try not to set off any viruses this time miles

[littlewalken]

feb 14 Mr Robinson's birthday!

First off, note to self-because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life explaining why a Diet Coke can wearing a fedora is riding a motorcycle while holding a kinkajou by the tail and yelling DO ME ROCKAPELLA! is on one arm and the ginger from the 90s version of the Mickey Mouse Club is on the other.

I'll take tattoos I'd now regret if I got them at the time I wanted them, Alex.

No regrets for the emotional support ginger or kinky Jew meme that gave me strength during dark times in my life, I just wouldn't want to deal with the people that would have to go out of their way to say something if you have a fedora, know what I mean, like wearing something with P*rn*gr*phy written on it if you're a Cure fan.

Even they stuck to just the album cover art for most official merch. Teddy, get your horse girl loving arse back in the band, Robert wants to play Eyes in My Mouth.

Andrew J Robinson's birthday today so celebrate by reading some fan fiction.

I can't say if I'll have the time as we're doing at least 1 if not 2 empty the storage unit loads each day. It's always a 3 hour trip when the roads aren't being worked on. Yeah, close to the shit shack to make it easier to empty means... It means we didn't know where we were going to be moving to but that's all behind us now.

Definitely in the stage of I don't want to keep this here but it has to be until we get everything in, or at least all my stuff, so I need a clear path to the walk in closet.

Meanwhile I am bringing in bags of empty plastic containers and broken statues for the pile. Fortunately these last three years of having to move and move the pile again did get to the smothering unit.

We have 3 irons. The oldest is already in the pile to go to the junk store. I bought a teal one in the mid 2000s to iron my fabric for doll clothes. That somehow got lost when I needed it a few years ago for plastic melt beads. I suspected it disappeared because it's mine. Well, that one just got added to the pile. It can stay until my purple one turns up then the teal one can go.

It's like the knitting machines, there's actually two of them and if you or someone you know wants flat knitting machines and can see the south side of Mt Baldy send me a message. I half want a little round knitting machine, my goal is to use up a bunch of yarn and make simple blankets or something. I don't want complicated devices that are almost as long as I am tall.

But let's just take a moment to celebrate the gift that is Mr Robinson and what he gave to Gashir fans everywhere. And wonder if he had been cast as Odo and Rene the tailor.

[galacticturnip-art]

And then Odo tries to eat him 😬

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