I previously posted diaries on the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, so it seems right that we move along to Deep Space 9. While it was initially described as "darker" than the previous Trek series, it still maintained Gene Roddenberry's fundamental optimism about humans, and a universe that inspired more wonder than fear.
Unlike all the other Treks, DS9 was not set on a ship seeking out new worlds, but on a space station where multiple species tried to maintain an uneasy peace. There was much squabbling over whether they stole the idea from Babylon 5, which debuted the same year, or vice versa. DS9's station orbited Bajor, a planet recently freed from Cardassian colonialism by a guerilla war that could be called terrorism or freedom fighting, depending on one's point of view.
The first review I saw mentioned the "political correctness" of casting an African-American actor as Commander Sisko. Around the same time, a review of Aladdin started off calling it "politically correct" that a Disney cartoon had its first nonwhite lead character since The Jungle Book. Nobody ever felt the need to discuss the "Caucasian correctness" of Kirk and Picard. Of course, in the Star Trek universe humans had progressed beyond caring about ethnicity or even noticing it. The one exception was Far Beyond the Stars, where Sisko hallucinated (?) about being a science fiction writer in the 1950's, whose writing is rejected because it's assumed that fans only want to read about white males. (Hmm, that sounds familiar.)
Women had also progressed a bit, with the the scrappy freedom fighter Kira Nerys as second in command. Kira's toughness was balanced with her spirituality; earth religions almost never show up in Star Trek series, but alien faiths are allowed. The best inside joke of the series involved the offscreen relationship between Nana Visitor (Kira) and Alexander Siddig (Julian Bashir). When they had to write Nana Visitor's pregnancy into the story, the plotline involved a pregnant Keiko O'Brien having an accident, so Dr. Bashir had to transplant the embryo into Kira. There's a moment in a later episode where she tells Bashir, "It's your fault I'm pregnant." Well, yeah, sorta.
Bashir is introduced using the same method ER used at least once a season: have him start out as annoying as possible, then gradually humanize him. In the first episode, he's bragging to Kira about what an awesome doctor he is, and how he could have taken any position he wanted, but he wanted to be "out in the wilderness, where heroes are made." Ugh. He did develop some self-awareness after about the first season, and was a lot more enjoyable when he stopped his stalkeresque pursuit of Jadzia Dax.
The showrunners continued to be skittish on the subject of sexual orientation, to the point where the shape-shifting Odo got involved with a fellow shape-shifter - but one that had a recognizably female form. There was one allegorical episode, Rejoined. This involved the Trill character, who was a combination of a humanoid host (Jadzia) and the long-lived symbiont that lived inside her (Dax). She encounters Lenara, to whom she was married when they were both in previous hosts. There was another, non-gender-related reason why their love was taboo, but we got one good kiss before they were torn apart. (As was customary in that era, every interview consisted of questions about whether it was uncomfortable doing a same-sex kiss, and her explaining that there's this thing called acting.)
Miles O'Brien and Worf were imported from ST:TNG. I never did understand the Worf/Jadzia romance. As for O'Brien, Phil Farrand (of The Nitpicker's Guides) used to observe that the always-busy O'Brien was the only one on the station who ever seemed to do any work.
And then there was Quark, the love-to-hate Ferengi who played foil to the law-and-order Odo. Quark embodied greed, arrogance, and general Republicanism - but in an era before Republicans were completely sociopathic and still liked to have fun.
On to Top Comments!
From Mopshell:
I've been somewhat lazy about sending in submissions for Top comments lately so I'm here to make amends. In Jen Hayden's diary Rick Santorum to Pope Francis: 'Leave science to the scientist' , three of my favorite kosacks chimed in with these superb comments. First in this memorable LOL thread was Remediator with a 3-line comment that concluded with a perfect description of all GOP politicians. A little further down was this zinger from the utterly delightful grover, followed by this recipe from blue aardvark. It brightened my day!
From
slksfca:
From today's critter diary, this jokey subject line and pic by dconrad.
Late addition from
d3clark:
Susan Grigsby's comment:
Sure they do, Ted, (5+ / 0-)
they have been dealing with the Republicans since 2009
Cruz said
"President Obama and his senior team ... don’t appreciate the radical religious zealotry.”
(Note from Tara: diary has been deleted.)
From
your humble (if antisocial) diarist:
Gooserock details what's even more important than getting out the vote. Found in lipris's diary Zephyr Teachout is doing something awesome in New York.
Top mojo, courtesy of mik:
1) Truly vile by hnichols +202
2) I hope all this attention wins her scholarships by FoundingFatherDAR +166
3) Which is why I think by Tasini +147
4) It seems that Rick forgot that the Pope by Dovie +119
5) Apparently not Jacob Wetter by jayden +115
6) Well you just undermined your own argument. by Calvino Partigiani +106
7) I would guess the average American voter favors by duckpin236 +100
8) Shameless by prwsag52 +95
9) I agree 100%. Younger people read papers by duckpin236 +89
10) Exept Santorum then ignores by TomP +87
10) Bernie has gotten about as much attention since by RFK Lives +87
12) You surprise me. by pasadena beggar +86
13) No, he's not a Christian. He may CALL himself by jan4insight +77
14) Why aren't Christians environmentalists? by Annie B +73
15) Was about to diary on her must read letter by mygreekamphora +72
16) What is this obsession over a girl's shoulders by MiAtheistGal +71
16) Just want to republish your last line, by Mogolori +71
16) From comments on Twitter, lots of people stayed up by flitedocnm +71
19) You see, there are people we call the near poor. by FogCityJohn +70
20) My first thought when I saw the resignation by jj32 +69
21) This. by slksfca +68
21) never knew shoulders were deemed "offending by FoundingFatherDAR +68
21) Dress codes are engineered... by Egalitare +68
21) The answer to this is obviously to... by kingfishstew +68
21) The Beatles got rejected time and again by by elwior +68
21) Ted, you careless lip-flapping tyrant you, by Remediator +68
27) Catholic here by firemage +67
27) I hate hate hate the "values" by FlorenceNJ2point0 +67
29) Where Does This "Press" Idea Come From???? by Gooserock +66
29) The Vatican has its own science office and has by duckpin236 +66
Picture quilt, courtesy of jotter: