Deep Space Nine.
Promise me something. If you are one of those people who loves Next Generation but (quote) "never got into that Deep Space Nine show" (unquote), promise me that you will get into it. If you have read this far into my rantings and you haven't gotten bored yet and you are (if I may be so presumptuous) having as much fun listening to me talk Trek as I am actually talking it, you need to get into DS9. You just need to. Deep Space Nine was Trek's "great experiment," to coin Kirk's description of the U.S.S. Excelsior. To some of the show's detractors, this experiment failed; like the Excelsior in Star Trek III, DS9 looked flashy at first, but it sputtered and fell apart when it tried to chase the mighty Enterprise. But to a lot of us who actually watched the show from start to finish (and I guarantee you none of its detractors did so) this experiment was a savior; like the Excelsior in Star Trek VI, it kicked ass, defied Starfleet regulations and nearly flew itself apart while soaring to the aid of an old and tired ship, and keeping the Enterprise - and the franchise -alive. What did you think of that metaphor? I thought it worked swimmingly well. OK, the show had a misfire here and there. Nog flying the Defiant made about as much sense as, I don't know ,Wesley flying the Enterprise. OK bad example. But seriously it had some dumb moments. But man were they few & far between. Put simply, DS9 is Trek living up to its full potential. It took the fantastically rich universe Roddenberry & the gang had created, and through its willingness to fuck with the rules that had been established for it, showed us how it was even more cool than we thought it was.Give me a show set on an alien space station, where the characters can't just take off if they aren't getting along with the latest guy whose wife Kirk or Riker banged. Give me a character who hates Picard because he (as Locutus) killed his wife at Wolf 359, someone who doesn't forgive him for that, like we were all so willing to do.Give me an ex-terrorist as a first officer, who thinks the Federation is a bunch of jag-offs.Give me a changeling searching for his identity…and better yet, when he finds that identity, let him be ***** repulsed by it.Give me a Ferengi who is neither an ineffective villain OR comic relief… someone who's a real guy.Give me a kid character who, unlike Wesley, doesn't give a **** about Starfleet. Make him a writer. Now there's someone I can relate to.You can have your boring Cigarette Smoking, Man…give me Garak, a mysterious recurring character who's actually interesting.Give me a green, wet-behind-the-ears young doctor who I think I'm going to hate, and make him into one of the most complex characters on Trek.Give me a husband and wife with a family on a Trek show, and show me how their lives work in the context of what happens on a Trek show.Give me Martok. Give me Rom. Give me Dukat. Give me Winn. Give me Weyoun. Give me Morn.Give me Dax…whatever form she's in.Give me a show that features a knock-down drag-out two-year war, an oppressed spiritual race, political coups out the wazoo, and a *****singing, self-aware hologram in a 1940s [actually Scott it was an early '60's] Vegas gin joint, and weave it all into an amazing tapestry that ends with the lead character being revealed as a **** messiah.Give me DS9, baby. Give me more.
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2 comments:
To me, original Trek was the extraordinarily gifted adolescent, and DS9 was the mature adult of the franchise. I love every moment of DS9 start to finish, even the occasional turkey, because the *bad* episodes of DS9 were better than some of the good episodes that came before. It's complex, difficult and engaging and you have to *think* for the whole hour.
(and, it doesn't hurt that I wish *I* had been Garak in an alternate timeline somewhere)
The biggest crime committed in the decline of Trek interest was the Paramount people being too cowardly to risk a DS9 movie. Now, *that* would have kicked some serious ****
Scott
Before I begin, I have to say that I am one of those "I never got into it" people. Not because I didn't like it, but at the time I was busy and having enough trouble keeping up with TNG every week.
That being said...
I think that one problem with DS9 stems from the fact that as a viewing public, our attention spans are diminishing at an alarming rate. With any of the other shows, you have the same core people, but new and different surroundings every week to add to the spectacle of life in the future. With DS9, not only do you have the same core people, but the same location and more mundane problems. (Babylon 5, another "space station" show suffered from this as well, but is also a good show.) I believe that this is probably the more realistic view of life, even in the future. Sure the Enterprise may be out saving the Universe (again) avery week, but what about the guy who keeps the replicators working. What about the people who wash all those uniforms? I think DS9 brings about the view that there are "real" people in this universe who aren't galactic heroes or universal saviours.
It is my observation that people don't like anything that reminds them of reality. Unless it is a "reality show" that has more business being on the fiction shelf... but I digress. That is a rant for another time.
I submit to you that maybe a lot of people didn't like DS9 because it reminded them that the future doesn't hold these fantastic experiences for everyone. They form these characters into iconic heroes. When they realise that not everyone in the future is like that, they realise that the future is actually more like today. And, if that is true, maybe they should be looking for iconic heroes now. Or they realise that they, in fact, are "normal".
Depressing. Human escapism at its best.
Anyway, I will start watching DS9, as it is aired on Spike TV. Once I have a better understanding of it Scott, we can discuss further.
Buddy
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