Re-Discovering "Deep Space 9"

Because watching TV occupies about 80% of my time, I occasionally find the time to re-visit shows I have already seen. I'm currently in the midst of a major marathon of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. I am a sci-fi fan, and a trekkie or trekker or whatever the term is; so naturally, I watched the show when it aired in the early 90's. But I had always been under the impression that I didn't really like it. At least, that's how I remember it.

I remember thinking that DS9 was too slow, and that was largely due to the show being based on a remote space station. You can't boldly go where no man has gone before when you stay in one place. That seemed like a major flaw. I also remember thinking that the actor who played Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks) sucked. Something about him just annoyed me. (On a side note, if you ever see the documentary, The Captains, you will see that Brooks is a pretty weird guy in real life. Babbled on and on in some incoherent fashion while playing the piano and singing. Yes, that weird)

Before I decided to give DS9 another go around, I tried really hard to remember the main story-lines of the series. I remembered the Bajorans and the Cardassians, and that there was a shape-shifting character. I think that was about it. Now, re-watching it, I don't think I even made it into the second season.

As of this writing, I have just started Season Four. This time around, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 is fantastic! The space station concept is not as bad or boring as I had remembered. With a stable wormhole to a largely uncharted quadrant of the galaxy nearby, the possibility for exploring is nearly endless.

While the Bajorans are a largely religious and boring people, their enemies, the Cardassians are very interesting. Sure, they are sort of Nazi-esque and all that, but their evil is so consistent that it makes for very compelling viewing. The greedy, non-stop profit seekers, the Ferengi, are prominently featured on DS9, and they are pretty hilarious. Ferengi women are not allowed to wear clothes, they cut and chew food for men, and they are forbidden from leaving the home. Watching the males deal with non-Ferengi women is always entertaining.

My feelings on the acting abilities of Avery Brooks are largely the same as I remembered. There's just something off about him, and I don't know how to describe it. But any issues I may have with Sisko are overshadowed by a character I had completely forgotten about...Dax.

Terry Farrell in "Back to School"

The beautiful Trill woman, Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell), would make the show worth watching even if the stories were lame (which they are not). Farrell's character is sexy, smart, and shares the memories and experiences of seven other people (it's a long story). Not sure how I could have forgotten her since she was in one of the greatest films ever, Back To School. Seriously. (And how is Dax not included in the "Sexiest Women in SciFi" lists that are all over the internet?)

So, beyond my lust for Dax, I am now seeing that the writing on DS9 was pretty great. One episode I watched the other day, Past Tense, was extremely compelling and seemed almost prescient. The episode had some of the cast members being transported back in time to San Francisco in 2024. In that time, the mentally ill, the sick, the poor, the undocumented, and the unemployed are forced to live inside "sanctuary districts" in major cities. The districts are walled off and largely out of the sight of the wealthier citizenry. Without I.D., Sisko and Dr. Bashir are thrown into a sanctuary district and left to fend for themselves. Dax, on the other hand, was found by a wealthy man who helped her avoid that fate (her being so hot had nothing to do with it, of course). Long story short, the sanctuary citizens stage a violent revolt and make the city wake up to exactly how inhumane it is to simply lock away "undesirables." I thought the episode was telling because of the way conservatives in America have been attempting to eliminate the social safety net here. If you listen to the rhetoric of the modern right, it's not much of a leap to think something like a "sanctuary" area to "help" those who are sick or mentally ill is not too far off. Paying for walls and cops is easier than dealing with the problem, right?

Oh, yeah, and when in the hell did TNG's Worf join DS9? Another detail I had forgotten. My last comment on this show is that the shapeshifter, Odo, was a brilliant addition. The actor who played him, René Auberjonois (who I loved as a kid when he was on Benson) is very talented, and he made the role much more than it could have been. What I like about the shapeshifters - beyond the obvious coolness of being able to become pretty much anything - is that they don't seem like a terrifying enemy. Their organization, the Dominion, rules the Gamma Quadrant of space. Though Odo is one of them, he chooses to stay with the "solids" rather than with his own people. Previous enemies like The Borg and the Vidiians were truly terrifying. On first look, the Dominion don't seem that scary. Naturally, that is misleading. Their subtlety can be oft-putting. The fact that anyone you meet could, in theory, be a shapeshifter makes fighting them extremely complicated.

I look forward to seeing how the next few seasons play out. I might have watched it back in the day, but I have zero recollection. Live long and...well, you know.